SUMMARY
[AUDIO]: February 7, 2020: Trump Told Woodward The Coronavirus Was “More Deadly Than Your – You Know, Even Your Strenuous Flus.” According to CNN at 0:16, Trump told Woodward, “It goes through air, Bob. That’s always tougher than the touch. You know, the touch, you don’t have to touch things. Right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed. And so, that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than your – you know, your, even your strenuous flus. You know, people don’t realize, we lose 25,000, 30,000 people a year here. Who would even think that, right? […] This is more deadly. This is five per- you know, this is five percent versus one percent and less than one percent. You know? So, this is deadly stuff.” [CNN, 0:16, 09/09/20]
March 19, 2020: Trump Admitted He Played Down The Virus Publicly “I Wanted To Always Play It Down” And, “I Still Like Playing It Down.” According to CNN, “I wanted to always play it down,’ Trump told Woodward on March 19, even as he had declared a national emergency over the virus days earlier. ‘I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic.’ If instead of playing down what he knew, Trump had acted decisively in early February with a strict shutdown and a consistent message to wear masks, social distance and wash hands, experts believe that thousands of American lives could have been saved.” [CNN, 09/09/20]
Almost A Month After Trump Told Woodward On February 7th About The Danger Of The Virus, He Was Publicly Talking About It Going Away. According to CNN, “When Woodward spoke to Trump on February 7, two days after he was acquitted on impeachment charges by the Senate, Woodward expected a lengthy conversation about the trial. He was surprised, however, by the President's focus on the virus. At the same time that Trump and his public health officials were saying the virus was ‘low risk,’ Trump divulged to Woodward that the night before he'd spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping about the virus. Woodward quotes Trump as saying, ‘We've got a little bit of an interesting setback with the virus going in China.’ ‘It goes through the air,’ Trump said. ‘That's always tougher than the touch. You don't have to touch things. Right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that's how it's passed. And so that's a very tricky one. That's a very delicate one. It's also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.’ But Trump spent most of the next month saying that the virus was "very much under control" and that cases in the US would ‘disappear.’ Trump said on his trip to India on February 25 that it was ‘a problem that's going to go away,’ and the next day he predicted the number of US cases ‘within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.’” [CNN, 09/09/20]
Even As Trump Publicly Downplayed The Virus, He Told Woodward “It’s So Easily Transmissible, You Wouldn’t Believe It.” According to Axios, “What Trump told Woodward: ‘Bob, it's so easily transmissible, you wouldn't believe it ... I mean you could, you could be in the room ... I was in the White House a couple of days ago, meeting with 10 people in the Oval Office and a guy sneezed — innocently. Not a horrible ... you know, just a sneeze. The entire room bailed out, OK? Including me, by the way.’ The other side: Trump told Fox News in an interview broadcast last Wednesday that he downplayed the virus' threat because he wanted to ‘show a calmness.’ The president also accused Woodward of doing ‘hit jobs with everybody’ on his books. Addressing Woodward's book, ‘Rage,’ about his presidency, Trump said: ‘I don't know if the book is good or bad — I have no idea. [I] probably, almost definitely, won't read it because I don't have time to read it.’” [Axios, 09/15/20]
March 19, 2020: Trump Acknowledged The Threat To Young People In Woodward Interview. According to CNN, “By March 19, when Trump told Woodward he was purposely downplaying the dangers to avoid creating a panic, he also acknowledged the threat to young people. ‘Just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out. It's not just old, older. Young people too, plenty of young people,’ Trump said. Publicly, however, Trump has continued to insist just the opposite, saying as recently as August 5 that children were ‘almost immune.’” [CNN, 09/09/20]
March 3, 2020 Pence Said, “Any American Can Be Tested, No Restrictions” For The Coronavirus. According to the New York Times, “Vice President Mike Pence said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had lifted all restrictions on testing for the coronavirus and would be releasing new guidelines to fast-track testing for people who fear they have the virus, even if they are displaying mild symptoms. ‘Today we will issue new guidance from the C.D.C. that will make it clear that any American can be tested, no restrictions, subject to doctor’s orders,’ Mr. Pence told reporters at the White House. ‘Any American can be tested. We’re removing that barrier.’” [New York Times, 3/3/20]
March 5, 2020: Pence Acknowledged That There Was A Shortfall In The Number Of Testing Kits Required To Meet Demand. According to CNN, “Confusion and delays appear to persist in testing Americans for coronavirus even after an outcry from state and local health authorities that the United States was behind in determining the extent of the outbreak. Vice President Mike Pence, who is leading the administration's response to the coronavirus crisis, acknowledged Thursday there was a shortfall in the number of testing kits required to meet demand. ‘We don't have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward,’ Pence told reporters while touring 3M facilities in Minnesota. The vice president said the government would be able to provide testing ‘for those that we believe have been exposed, for those who are showing symptoms.’ But his remarks were an acknowledgment that the administration is still not prepared to meet an expected spike in demand in tests for coronavirus, which has spread to 17 states.” [CNN, 3/5/20]
March 6, 2020: Donald Trump Said, “Anybody That Wants A Test Can Get A Test. That’s What The Bottom Line Is.”According to a White House Transcript, “THE PRESIDENT: Anybody that wants a test can get a test. That’s what the bottom line is.” [White House – Press Conference Transcript, 3/7/20]
May, 2020: Trump Revisited The False Talking Point Claiming That “If Somebody Wants To Be Tested Right Now, They'll Be Able To Be Tested." According to CNN, “On Monday, President Donald Trump made the same claim about coronavirus testing that he did in early March. "If somebody wants to be tested right now," Trump said at a Monday news conference, "they'll be able to be tested." Two months later, it's still not true. Some states now say they are offering tests to everyone. But multiple states still say tests should go to people who meet certain criteria -- such as having symptoms of the virus, having had contact with an infected person or working in a health care facility or in a grocery store.” [CNN, 5/11/20]
HHS Secretary Azar Admitted Government Did Not Know How Many Americans Had Been Tested For Coronavirus. According to CNN, “Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday the department does not know how many Americans have been tested for coronavirus and suggested older Americans avoid large gatherings such as campaign rallies. ‘We don’t know exactly how many, because hundreds of thousands of our tests have gone out to private labs and hospitals that currently do not report in to (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention),’ Azar told CNN’s John Berman on ‘New Day’ when asked how many Americans have been tested for coronavirus at this point. ‘We’re working with the CDC and those partners to get an I.T. reporting system up and running hopefully this week where we would be able to get that data to keep track of how many we’re testing.’ The HHS chief also said there are 2.1 million testing kits currently available and more than 1 million have been shipped. The availability of test kits to health care providers has been one of the most scrutinized aspects of the federal government’s response to the crisis, leading to frustrations from state and local officials, and there has been confusion among Trump administration officials over the number of testing kits that have been mailed out.” [CNN, 3/10/20]
Trump Administration Officials Repeatedly Contradicted One Another On The Number Of Americans Tested For Coronavirus And Tests Available. According to CNN, “Trump administration officials have repeatedly been asked about the number of Americans who have been tested for the virus and the number of testing kits available and have given various answers. CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said Tuesday during a House Appropriations hearing that 4,856 coronavirus tests have been run in public health labs across the US, but that number, last updated on Monday, does not include clinical labs or private labs. When asked on Sunday by CNN’s Jake Tapper on ‘State of the Union’ how many people had been tested, US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams explained that ‘the numbers are tough because they’re changing minute by minute.’ ‘They should know that we have 75,000 tests available right now for folks. By early next week, tomorrow, we should have over 2 million tests available,’ he also told Tapper. ‘By the end of the week, through partnerships with private industry, over 4 million tests available,’ he said when asked for a rough estimate on the number testing kits available. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, told ABC’s George Stephanopolous on ‘This Week’ Sunday ‘over a million tests were shipped out already this past week.’ ‘Tomorrow another 640,000 will be available,’ he said. ‘And those are only the ones that are being dealt with on a federal official level.’” [CNN, 3/10/20]
HHS Assistant Secretary Kadlec Admitted To The Administration’s Failure To Adequately Prepare For An Outbreak Of The Severity Of The Coronavirus. According to Insurance Journal, “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to the specific safety concerns raised by the nation’s health care workers. But a department spokeswoman said the administration is working with companies that manufacture the equipment, including N95 masks, ‘so we can rapidly arrange contracts to buy supplies to protect the American people.’ Dr. Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary of Health and Human Services for Preparedness & Response, said at a Senate hearing on Thursday that historically the plan for protecting front-line health care workers has been to focus on routine influenza, which can be prevented by vaccines or treated with antivirals. Coronavirus is not influenza. Not preparing more respirators for an outbreak like coronavirus was a ‘little bit of an oversight and has significant implications for today,’ Kadlec testified. He said the government just authorized the purchase of 500 million respirators, which it expects to receive in the next six to 12 months. ‘So that will ramp up,’ he said. Earlier, officials had said they had 13 million on hand.” [Insurance Journal, 3/9/20]
March 30, 2020: After Governors Complained About Lack Of Testing, Trump Said He Had Not Heard About Testing In “Weeks” And “I Haven’t Heard Anything About Testing Being A Problem.” According to CBS News, “Several rural-state governors alerted President Trump on Monday that they are struggling to obtain urgently needed medical supplies and testing equipment, warning that despite the worsening coronavirus situation in New York and other urban areas, more sparsely populated parts of the country need help, too. In response to requests for more testing kits, Mr. Trump said, ‘I haven’t heard about testing in weeks,’ according to an audio recording of the call between the president and governors obtained by CBS News. During the call, which lasted a little over an hour, Democratic and Republican governors detailed how they are struggling to obtain the protective equipment doctors and nurses will need to treat the sick and the test kits needed to determine whether sick residents are suffering from COVID-19.[…] Mr. Trump replied, ‘I haven’t heard about testing in weeks. We’ve tested more now than any nation in the world. We’ve got these great tests and we’ll come out with another one tomorrow that’s, you know, almost instantaneous testing. But I haven’t heard anything about testing being a problem.’” [CBS News, 3/30/20]
Trump Touted 2 Million Americans Tested As A Victory, And Rejected The Notion The US Would Engage In Mass Testing To Combat The Coronavirus.According to CNN, “President Donald Trump said Thursday that there have been more than two million coronavirus tests completed in the United States but suggested that mass testing is not going to happen. ‘I’m reporting today that we passed two million tests completed in the United States,’ Trump said during the White House coronavirus task force’s news briefing, adding that the tests are ‘highly sophisticated and highly accurate.’ […] During Thursday’s briefing, the President was asked by CNN’s Jim Acosta whether the US would return to normal without instituting an adequate testing system, potentially through nationwide testing and monitoring. Trump appeared to interpret the question as asking whether the entire American population would be tested for coronavirus. ‘We want to have it and we’re going to see if we have it. Do you need it? No. Is it a nice thing to do? Yes. We’re talking about 325 million people and that’s not gonna happen, as you can imagine, and it would never happen with anyone else, either,’ the President said. ‘Other countries do it, but they do it in a limited form. We’ll probably be the leader of the pack.’ Trump also suggested there would be ‘massive testing’ in ‘certain areas’ of the country.” [CNN, 4/7/20]
Trump Blamed Governors For Nationwide Shortages In Testing. According to Associate Press, “President Donald Trump is wrongly casting blame on governors and the Obama administration for shortages in coronavirus testing and declaring victory over what he calls relatively low death rates in the U.S. That’s too soon to tell. […] TRUMP, on governors urging wider availability of virus tests: ‘They don’t want to use all of the capacity that we’ve created. We have tremendous capacity. ...They know that. The governors know that. The Democrat governors know that; they’re the ones that are complaining.’ — news briefing Saturday. THE FACTS: Trump’s assertion that governors are not using already available testing capacity is contradicted by one of his top health advisers. He’s also wrong that Democrats are the only ones expressing concerns about the adequacy of COVID-19 testing; several Republican governors also point to problems. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious disease expert, told The Associated Press that the U.S. does not yet have the critical testing and tracing procedures needed to begin reopening the nation’s economy. ‘We have to have something in place that is efficient and that we can rely on, and we’re not there yet,’ Fauci, a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, said Tuesday.” [Associate Press, 4/19/20]
Trump Insisted Governors Had Received The Federal Support And Resources They Need, When In Fact Many Had Not. According to The New York Times, “‘These were not complaining people. They had everything they needed. They had their ventilators; they had their testing,’ Mr. Trump said on Monday after a call with governors. ‘We’re getting them what they need.’ In fact, governors have been complaining that they do not have nearly enough tests to give them the kind of information they need to make difficult decisions about reopening. They say they are competing with one another — and other countries — for the components that make up the testing kits, including nasal swabs and chemicals that detect whether the virus is present in a specimen. Rather than one coordinated federal response, the Trump administration has been engaging on an ad hoc basis as states take the lead. In Kansas, for example, after an outbreak of the coronavirus in the meatpacking industry threatened to shutter plants that supply one-quarter of the nation’s meat, tests were ferried in by Kansas National Guard pilots in Blackhawk helicopters — but only after Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, pleaded with Mr. Trump for help.” [New York Times, 4/27/20]
April 12, 2020: Dr. Fauci Stated That Lives Could Have Been Saved Had Efforts To Mitigate COVID-19 Been Started Earlier And Cited “A Lot Of Pushback” About Implementing Social Distancing. According to CNN, “Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that calls to implement life-saving social distancing measures faced ‘a lot of pushback’ early in the US coronavirus outbreak and that the country is now looking for ways to more effectively respond to the virus should it rebound in the fall. ‘I mean, obviously, you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives,’ Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on ‘State of the Union’ when asked if social distancing and stay-at-home measures could have prevented death had they been put in place in February, instead of mid-March. ‘Obviously, no one is going to deny that. But what goes into those decisions is complicated,’ added Fauci, who is a key member of the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force. ‘But you’re right, I mean, obviously, if we had right from the very beginning shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different. But there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then.’” [CNN, 4/12/20]
The White House Attempted To Quell Assertions That Trump Was Displeased With Dr. Fauci Following His Comments On CNN And Trump’s Retweeting Of A Post Encouraging Dr. Fauci’s Firing. According to The Hill, “Anthony Fauci looks to be skating on thin ice with President Trump, despite — or perhaps because of — a growing sense that he is the most trusted expert on the coronavirus crisis. The White House moved on Monday to squash suggestions that Fauci could be ousted from the president’s task force on the crisis. And Fauci himself sought to shore up his position during the White House press briefing, when he walked back remarks he had made at the weekend. During a CNN interview on Sunday, Fauci had suggested that mitigation measures would have been more effective had they been put in place earlier but that there had been ‘pushback’ against them. After Trump invited Fauci to the lectern within minutes of beginning Monday’s press briefing, the doctor said that his reference to ‘pushback’ was ‘the wrong choice of words.’ He also said that Trump ‘went to the mitigation’ the first time he was asked to do so. The remarks came after ominous signs for Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. On Sunday, Trump had retweeted a message that included the words ‘time to #FireFauci.’” [Hill, 4/14/20]
Dr. Fauci Insisted The US Double Testing Prior To Reopening The Country. According to Politico, “The U.S. should at least double coronavirus testing in the coming weeks before easing into reopening the economy, the government’s top infectious disease expert said Saturday. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said the U.S. now churns through about 1.5 million to 2 million tests a week. ‘We probably should get up to twice that as we get into the next several weeks, and I think we will,’ he said during the National Academy of Sciences annual meeting. Public health experts have called for increased testing to get a clearer picture of the pandemic’s scope, as well as to identify, isolate and trace contacts for infected patients. High rates of positive results could mean there’s not enough testing, Fauci said, adding that those should constitute ‘maybe less than 10 percent.’ The U.S. currently is seeing positive rates closer to 20 percent. Adequate testing should ‘get those who are infected out of society so that they don’t infect others,’ he said. Fauci warned public health group” [Politico, 4/25/20]
Fauci Asserted A Second Pandemic Wave Could Be Avoided When Reopening With Proper Mitigation
Dr. Fauci Asserted That With Proper Mitigations Efforts The Impending Second Wave Of The Pandemic Could Potentially Be Avoided. According to The Hill, “Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top expert on infectious diseases, said Wednesday that a second wave of coronavirus infections is ‘not inevitable’ if people are vigilant about proper mitigation efforts. ‘We often talk about the the possibility of a second wave, or of an outbreak when you’re reopening,’ Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, said on CNN. ‘We don’t have to accept that as an inevitability.’ ‘And particularly when people start thinking about the fall. I want people to really appreciate that, it could happen but it is not inevitable,’ he added. Last month, Fauci had said in multiple interviews that a second wave of COVID-19 was indeed unavoidable. ‘It’s inevitable that the coronavirus will return next season. ... When it does, how we handle it, will determine our fate,’ he told NBC News. Fauci and other health experts have repeatedly voiced caution about plans to allow nonessential businesses and other public venues to reopen, stressing that widespread testing availability and a comprehensive contact-tracing program need to be in place.” [Hill, 5/27/20]
Chairman Of The Senate Health Committee, GOP Senator Lamar Alexander, Declared There Was Not Enough Testing Being Conducted To Support Safely Reopening The Country. According to Politico, “Millions more coronavirus tests will be needed to safely reopen the country, the chairman of the Senate HELP Committee said at a hearing Thursday. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) called the more than 7 million diagnostic tests run to date ‘impressive, but not nearly enough’ adding ‘there is no safe path forward to combat the novel coronavirus without adequate testing.’” [Politico, 5/7/20]
HHS Assistant Secretary Giroir Said Trump’s Claim That The US Would Be Able To Conduct 5 Million Coronavirus Tests Per Day Was Not Feasible. According to Time, “President Donald Trump declared Tuesday that the U.S. will be able to carry out five million coronavirus tests per day, but the top official overseeing testing strategy told TIME earlier in the day that goal wasn’t feasible given current technology. Admiral Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary of health who is in charge of the government’s testing response, said during an interview on Tuesday morning that ‘there is absolutely no way on Earth, on this planet or any other planet, that we can do 20 million tests a day, or even five million tests a day.’ Since the beginning of the year, the Administration has conducted 5.7 million tests in total, he said. And while the government has made strides in increasing the number of tests being performed in recent months, the White House’s new ‘blueprint’ for testing, rolled out on Monday, currently plans to double current COVID-19 testing. Giroir plans to hit 8 million per month by next month. The tally would still fall short of what a Harvard University study said is necessary to safely restart public life.” [Time, 4/28/20]
While Testifying Before The Senate, CDC Director Redfield Admitted The Outbreak Surpassed The Capacity Of The Federal Government’s Contact Tracing Program; Said, “We Lost The Containment Edge” According to New York Times, “The question of testing and contact tracing — why it is still inadequate, and whether it can be scaled up enough to safely allow communities to reopen — came up repeatedly from senators of both parties. Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the C.D.C., said that the coronavirus outbreak ‘went beyond the capacity’ of the government’s contact-tracing program, and conceded: ‘We lost the containment edge.’ He said the C.D.C. had retrained 500 people nationwide to help build up the contact-tracing capacity that states would need to prepare for the fall and winter. He also made several comments that reflected his dissatisfaction with the nation’s fragmented public health network, and his agency’s outdated system of tracking and analyzing critical data from the states. ‘There’s an archaic system, a nonintegrated public health system,’ Dr. Redfield said. ‘This nation needs modern, highly capable data analytics.’” [New York Times, 5/12/20]
Trump Dismissed The Need For Continued Testing In The U.S., Claiming Widespread Testing Was “Overrated.”
According to The Hill, “President Trump on Thursday suggested the practice of widespread coronavirus testing may be ‘overrated,’ even as health experts insist it is critical to safely loosen restrictions and reopen businesses. Trump boasted about the United States’s testing capabilities during remarks at a Pennsylvania medical equipment distribution center, where he announced the country has administered 10 million tests since the outbreak began. ‘We have the best testing in the world,’ Trump told employees at Owens & Minor Inc. in Allentown. ‘Could be that testing’s, frankly, overrated. Maybe it is overrated.’ ‘But we have the greatest testing in the world,’ he added. ‘But what we want is we want to get rid of this thing. That’s what we want.’ The U.S. has more than 1.4 million confirmed coronavirus cases, by far the most of any country in the world. But Trump suggested the soaring infection numbers were merely a reflection of America’s testing capacity. ‘We have more cases than anybody in the world, but why? Because we do more testing,’ Trump said. ‘When you test, you have a case. When you test you find something is wrong with people. If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases. They don’t want to write that. It’s common sense. We test much more.’” [Hill, 5/14/20]
June 21, 2020: Trump Claimed “When You Do Testing To That Extent, You’re Gonna Find More People You’re Gonna Find More Cases. So I Said To My People Slow The Testing Down, Please.” According to Reuters, “When you do testing to that extent, you’re gonna find more people you’re gonna find more cases. So I said to my people slow the testing down, please,” Trump told a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where many supporters were not wearing face masks.” [Reuters, 6/21/20]
Trump Said He Asked Staff To Slow Down Testing; Staff Said He Was Joking. According to CBS News, “Washington — President Trump doubled down on his recent comments about ordering his administration to slow down coronavirus testing, contradicting several White House officials who defended his remarks by claiming they were made in jest. During a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday, Mr. Trump said, "When you do testing to that extent you're going to find more people, you're going to find cases. So I said to my people, 'Slow the testing down, please.' They test and they test. We got tests for people who don't know what's going on." [CBS News, 6/23/20]
Asked If He Was Kidding, Trump Said, “I Don’t Kid.” According to CBS News, “But when asked by CBS News' Weijia Jiang on Tuesday if he was kidding when he made those remarks, Mr. Trump replied, "I don't kid.” [CBS News, 6/23/20]
Contradicting Trump’s Opposition to Testing, Birx Encouraged Governors To Ramp Up Testing To Identify Asymptomatic Individuals. According to the Daily Beast, “Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, told the nation’s governors in a call Monday that it was vital that they ramp up testing to find asymptomatic individuals to prevent further community spread. Her remarks stood in stark contrast to those by the president at his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma over the weekend—and the days since—in which he said he had asked his team to slow-walk testing initiatives so as not to inflate the country’s official case count.” [Daily Beast, 6/23/20]
Trump Falsely Claimed That More Testing Resulted In More US Confirmed Cases Than In Other Countries. According to CNN, “Trump has argued, as he did again on Twitter Thursday, that the US has higher case numbers than other countries only because the US is testing more than those countries are. Trump has even claimed that the higher number of US tests is the reason the US shows more cases than Germany, a country that has been widely praised for its handling of the pandemic. ‘So Germany is going to show fewer cases because they’re testing far fewer people -- different-sized countries and all, but they’re testing far fewer people,’ Trump said on Fox News in late June. That is also inaccurate. By aggressively testing at the outset of the crisis, Germany -- like another country Trump has mentioned while boasting of the total number of US tests, South Korea -- simply did a better job suppressing its outbreak. It therefore required fewer tests per person over the long term.” [CNN, 7/9/20]
Trump Inaccurately Continued To Attribute The Rise In U.S. COVID-19 Cases To Increases In Testing. According to CNN, “No matter how high the daily number of new coronavirus cases has gotten, President Donald Trump has responded with the argument he repeated on Thursday: the big number is just more evidence of the country’s success with testing. ‘Cases, Cases, Cases! If we didn’t test so much and so successfully, we would have very few cases,’ Trump tweeted on Saturday. ‘There is a rise in Coronavirus cases because our testing is so massive and so good, far bigger and better than any other country,’ he tweeted last week. Trump’s own officials and his Republican allies have acknowledged it’s not true that a rising number of tests is the reason the number of cases has skyrocketed over the last month. One telling piece of evidence that the spike is genuine: the percentage of people testing positive, a key measure of the true spread of the virus, has also spiked.” [CNN, 7/9/20]
August 2020: The Trump Administration Quietly Changed Its Testing Guidelines To Exclude People Not Showing Symptoms, “Even If They Had Been Recently Exposed To The Virus,” Despite The Fact That Asymptomatic People Were Projected To Be Responsible For About Half The Spread. According to The New York Times, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly modified its coronavirus testing guidelines this week to exclude people who do not have symptoms of Covid-19 — even if they have been recently exposed to the virus. Experts questioned the revision, pointing to the importance of identifying infections in the small window immediately before the onset of symptoms, when many individuals appear to be most contagious. Models suggest that about half of transmission events can be traced back to individuals still in this so-called pre-symptomatic stage, before they start to feel ill — if they ever feel sick at all.” [New York Times, 08/25/20]
The Change In Regulations Was Not Written By CDC Scientists, And Did Not Clear The Scientific Review Process. According to The New York Times, “A heavily criticized recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month about who should be tested for the coronavirus was not written by C.D.C. scientists and was posted to the agency’s website despite their serious objections, according to several people familiar with the matter as well as internal documents obtained by The New York Times. The guidance said it was not necessary to test people without symptoms of Covid-19 even if they had been exposed to the virus. It came at a time when public health experts were pushing for more testing rather than less, and administration officials told The Times that the document was a C.D.C. product and had been revised with input from the agency’s director, Dr. Robert Redfield. But officials told The Times this week that the Department of Health and Human Services did the rewriting and then “dropped” it into the C.D.C.’s public website, flouting the agency’s strict scientific review process.” [New York Times, 09/17/20]
September 2020: After Facing Criticism For Its Original Decision, The CDC Reversed Course On Testing Guidelines For Asymptomatic People Who Had Been Exposed “Due To The Significance Of Symptomatic And Pre-Symptomatic Transmission.” According to Politico, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says that close contacts of people with Covid-19 should be tested, regardless of whether they have symptoms — reversing controversial recommendations it made last month, reportedly over the advice of agency scientists. CDC's testing guidelines now bluntly counsel people who have been within six feet of a person ‘with documented SARS-CoV-2 infection’ for at least 15 minutes to get screened. "You need a test," reads the latest version of the document, released Friday. ‘Due to the significance of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission, this guidance further reinforces the need to test asymptomatic persons, including close contacts of a person with documented SARS-CoV-2 infection,’ the guidance also says. The agency came under fire from public health experts last month when it altered its testing guidelines to stop promoting testing to most asymptomatic people with extended exposure to someone with a confirmed infection. It left the decision about whether to test such people to state and local public health officials and health providers.” [Politico, 09/18/20]
Vice President Pence Planned To Control All Coronavirus Messaging From Health Officials In An Attempt To Impose A More Disciplined Approach To Communications. According to the New York Times, “The White House moved on Thursday to tighten control of coronavirus messaging by government health officials and scientists, directing them to coordinate all statements and public appearances with the office of Vice President Mike Pence, according to several officials familiar with the new approach […] Mr. Trump announced Wednesday evening that Mr. Pence would coordinate the government’s response to the public health threat while playing down the immediate danger from the virus that is spreading rapidly across the globe. Officials insist Mr. Pence’s goal is not to control what experts and other officials say, but to make sure their efforts are coordinated, after days of confusion with various administration officials making contradictory statements on television.” [New York Times, 2/27/20]
HHS And The CDC Failed To Coordinate It’s Agency Responses Causing Delayed CDC Testing And Created A Window For Further Spread Of The Virus Undiagnosed. According to Politico, “Even as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention takes blame for testing delays that may have led to hundreds of Americans being quietly infected with the coronavirus, officials inside the health department and the White House are increasingly pointing the finger at one leader: Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who they say failed to coordinate the response, as agency chiefs waited for instructions that came too late and other deputies were largely cut out of the process.” [Politico, 2/3/20]
The CDC Misrepresented The Progress Of Coronavirus Testing To HHS Representatives As Evidence Showed The Virus Spread Undetected Within The US For Weeks. According to Politico, “The CDC had spent days reassuring HHS leaders that the lab tests were imminent, even as delays prevented their delivery. The delays prevented many Americans, who didn’t fit the CDC’s strict criteria, from being tested for coronavirus. CDC initially limited testing to people who had recently traveled to China or had close contact with a confirmed case and were also symptomatic. Health officials have reported more than 100 cases of coronavirus across the United States, with increasing evidence that the virus has been spreading undetected for weeks.” [Politico, 3/3/20]
A Trump Administration Official Expressed Concern About The CDC’s Ability To Recover From Failed Coronavirus Lab Tests. According to Politico, ‘CDC’s stumbled,’ said one official, referencing the agency’s lab-testing failures. ‘It's too early to tell if those stumbles will mean we miss an outbreak ... It’s a pray-and-see situation.’ Others said Redfield is caught between competing pressures, as he seeks to protect his agency’s career scientists as Trump’s anger over the situation grows, and that HHS Secretary Alex Azar, who pushed to lead the president's coronavirus task force, bears ultimate responsibility for any missteps at CDC, an agency he oversees.” [Politico, 2/26/20]
The CDC Barred Senior FDA Official, Timothy Stenzel From Entering Facilities To Assist With The Development Of The Delayed Stalled Coronavirus Screening Tests. According to Politico, “In a sign of growing tension among the Trump administration’s health agencies, officials are expressing frustration that a top scientist was initially rebuffed when attempting to visit the CDC in Atlanta last month to help coordinate the government’s stalled coronavirus testing, two individuals with knowledge of the episode told POLITICO. Timothy Stenzel, who is the director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health, was made to wait overnight on the weekend of Feb. 22 — as senior health department officials negotiated his access in a series of calls — before Centers for Disease Control granted him permission to be on campus. Stenzel’s visit had been expected, the individuals said. The FDA had dispatched Stenzel to the CDC in an effort to expedite the development of lab tests for the novel coronavirus outbreak. Problems with the CDC-developed test delayed the Trump administration’s plan to expand screening for weeks, POLITICO first reported on Feb. 20. A senior HHS official confirmed the episode.” [Politico, 3/3/20]
Tension Between The Trump Administration And CDC Officials Escalated As The White House Continued Attempts To Downplay The Crisis And Was Met With Opposition From Health Officials Seeking To Present A Realistic View Of The Growing Pandemic. According to CNN, “Fissures between the White House and national health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have begun to expand as the coronavirus pandemic spreads to more American states, creating dissonance between President Donald Trump and the professionals tasked with containing the virus further. The two sides have grown increasingly distrustful of one another, people inside both the CDC and the White House say, as officials on each side question decisions that either appear designed to downplay the growing crisis or to generate further concern. The cracks are falling along predictable lines. While health officials have sought to present a realistic and cautious picture of the national situation, Trump and his political allies are hoping to relay an altogether different message: that the virus is contained, Americans face little risk, and life should proceed as normal.” [CNN, 3/9/20]
Internal Tensions Between Azar And Director Of The CDC Robert Redfield Had Broken Out In The Open. According to the New York Times, “At times the internal tensions have broken out in the open. In an Oval Office meeting last week, Mr. Trump was told that Dr. Redfield had told Politico reporters about a looming shortage in materials the C.D.C. uses to extract genetic material from patient samples. After Mr. Trump asked about the supply problem, Mr. Azar turned to his C.D.C. chief and asked whether he was going to answer the president, according to three senior administration officials who heard about the testy exchange. In an implicit rebuke of Dr. Redfield’s testing oversight, Mr. Azar announced on Friday that the assistant secretary for health, Adm. Brett P. Giroir, would oversee the federal government’s revived testing efforts, with Dr. Redfield and Dr. Hahn reporting up to him.” [New York Times, 3/16/20]
A Day-Long Email Crash In February Impeded The HHS Response To Coronavirus And Added Fuel To Tensions Among Department Leaders. According to Politico, “As health department officials worked quickly to negotiate an emergency funding package to fight the spreading coronavirus outbreak on Feb. 23, they came to a frustrating realization: Their email system had crashed. The outage in the Health and Human Services secretary’s office stretched on much of the day, with some messages delayed up to 11 hours, creating frustration and slowing the Trump administration’s coronavirus response.” [Politico, 3/10/20]
The Crash Was Caused By An Email Test Conducted By CMS, After CMS Failed To Brief HHS Leaders Before The Test. According to Politico, “The HHS officials soon discovered the culprit: An email test conducted by the team at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a branch of the health department that hadn’t briefed HHS leaders or alerted the department’s chief information officer before sending thousands of messages through their shared system. Although it was a Sunday, top officials were negotiating with the White House over a soon-to-be-announced coronavirus funding plan and tackling other urgent decisions — which were interrupted by the email outage. The previously unreported episode was the latest in a series of information technology snafus caused by the department’s Medicare branch dating back more than a year.” [Politico, 3/10/20]
The Trump Administration Ordered Hospitals Stop Sending The Daily Coronavirus Reports To The CDC And Directed The Reports Be Sent Directly To The Department Of Health And Human Services. According to The New York Times, “The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send all Covid-19 patient information to a central database in Washington beginning on Wednesday. The move has alarmed health experts who fear the data will be politicized or withheld from the public. The new instructions were posted recently in a little-noticed document on the Department of Health and Human Services website. From now on, the department — not the C.D.C. — will collect daily reports about the patients that each hospital is treating, the number of available beds and ventilators, and other information vital to tracking the pandemic. Officials say the change will streamline data gathering and assist the White House coronavirus task force in allocating scarce supplies like personal protective gear and remdesivir, the first drug shown to be effective against the virus. But the Health and Human Services database that will receive new information is not open to the public, which could affect the work of scores of researchers, modelers and health officials who rely on C.D.C. data to make projections and crucial decisions.” [New York Times, 7/14/20]
DoD Sought To Limit Troop Travel To Contain Coronavirus, But White House Pushed Back Citing Political Ramifications And Economic Impact. According to Politico, “The Pentagon and the White House, in the weeks leading up to the president’s national emergency declaration on Friday, quarreled over the response to the coronavirus outbreak that was sweeping the country. Defense Department leaders urged measures such as restricting troop travel in order to contain the virus. But other administration officials pushed back, arguing against any “rash” steps that could have political ramifications and economic impact, defense officials told POLITICO.” [Politico, 3/20/20]
March 2020: Kushner Told His Shadow Taskforce That “The Free Market Will Solve” The Shortage Of PPE, And “It’s Up To The States To Figure Out What They Want To Do.” According to Vanity Fair, “What actually transpired in the room stunned a number of those in attendance. Vanity Fair has reconstructed the details of the meeting for the first time, based on recollections, notes, and calendar entries from three people who attended the meeting. All quotations are based on the recollections of one or more individual attendees. Kushner, seated at the head of the conference table, in a chair taller than all the others, was quick to strike a confrontational tone. ‘The federal government is not going to lead this response,’ he announced. ‘It’s up to the states to figure out what they want to do.’ One attendee explained to Kushner that due to the finite supply of PPE, Americans were bidding against each other and driving prices up. To solve that, businesses eager to help were looking to the federal government for leadership and direction. ‘Free markets will solve this,’ Kushner said dismissively. ‘That is not the role of government.’” [Vanity Fair, 09/17/20]
Kushner Created A Team Of Government Allies And Private Industry Representatives To Combat Coronavirus Outside Of The White House Task Force. According to the Washington Post, “Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and a senior adviser, has created his own team of government allies and private industry representatives to work alongside the administration’s official coronavirus task force, adding another layer of confusion and conflicting signals within the White House’s disjointed response to the crisis.” [WaPo, 3/18/20]
Kushner Chose To Consult A Group Of Billionaires And Bankers, Some Of Whom Had No Public Health Experience. According to Vanity Fair, “Countries that have successfully contained their outbreaks have empowered scientists to lead the response. But when Jared Kushner set out in March to solve the diagnostic-testing crisis, his efforts began not with public health experts but with bankers and billionaires. They saw themselves as the “A-team of people who get shit done,” as one participant proclaimed in a March Politico article. Kushner’s brain trust included Adam Boehler, his summer college roommate who now serves as chief executive officer of the newly created U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, a government development bank that makes loans overseas. Other group members included Nat Turner, the cofounder and CEO of Flatiron Health, which works to improve cancer treatment and research. A Morgan Stanley banker with no notable health care experience, Jason Yeung took a leave of absence to join the task force. Along the way, the group reached out for advice to billionaires, such as Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen.” [Vanity Fair,07/30/20]
Kushner Team Caused Confusion In Chain Of Command Due To His Dual Roles Of Sr. Advisor And Family Member. According to the Washington Post, “But Kushner’s team is causing confusion among many officials involved in the response, who say they are unsure who is in charge given Kushner’s dual role as senior adviser and Trump family member. Some have privately dubbed his team a “shadow task force” whose requests they interpret as orders they must balance with regular response efforts.” [WaPo, 3/18/20]
Kushner’s Shadow Coronavirus Taskforce Was Comprised Of Private Equity, Healthcare Industry, Finance Professionals All With Financial Stakes In The Federal Response To The Pandemic. According to Mother Jones, “Last year, private equity firms spent tens of millions to defeat bipartisan legislation reining in surprise medical bills that can send unsuspecting patients into debt. In December, Congress buckled to the industry’s pressure and failed to limit predatory billing practices of many institutional health care investors—especially private equity firms, which have aggressively moved into the health care space over the last decade. Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe—one such private equity firm that has generated big investor returns by following the industry playbook of buying up health care practices, loading them with debt, and charging patients more—controls companies that spent hundreds of thousands lobbying against the bill and helped fund a coalition of private equity-backed medical groups that spent $4 million to block the legislation. And last month, one of the firm’s top executives joined a shadow task force convened by Jared Kushner to help run the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. He’s in good company. When Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, assembled the group, he did not turn to experts in crisis management or public health. Instead, he enlisted people with experience in the business of health care—not necessarily medical experts, but particularly those who worked on finance side and were adept at making money off the health care industry. Some who were invited to join from inside the government’s ranks were former investors and entrepreneurs in the health space, including a former roommate of Kushner’s. But members of the shadow working group who come from outside government work at or run companies that have a clear financial stake in how the government handles the crisis and doles out contracts, spending, and bailout funding.” [Mother Jones, 4/21/20]
The Participants On Kushner’s Taskforce Avoided Having To Adhere To Federal Ethics And Transparency Rules Since Kushner’s Taskforce Was Comprised Of Primarily Non-Government Members. According to Mother Jones, “Because of the way the group has been assembled and run, the outsiders, unlike government employees, have not had to disclose any such potential conflicts, submit to ethics determinations about recusals, nor to divest from any financial arrangements that could influence their decisions. Moreover, because Kushner’s group is operating on private phones and email accounts without regard for federal transparency requirements governing advisory committees, there’s less insight into whether or not they are using their positions to make money for themselves or their companies. ‘There are serious questions about how the Trump and Kushner families use the presidency to benefit themselves,’ says Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group whose experts say Kushner’s shadow group is violating federal record-keeping and transparency laws. ‘We don’t know how involved family business ties are to any of this. We don’t know all the members of the task force or who they’re talking to. We don’t know how people are pushing their own financial interests.’” [Mother Jones, 4/21/20]
A Volunteer On Kushner’s Coronavirus Taskforce Filed A Complaint Alleging The Group Had Little Success Acquiring PPE Because None Of The Team Members Had Significant Experience In Health Care Or Supply Chain Operations. According to The Washington Post, “The coronavirus response being spearheaded by President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has relied in part on volunteers from consulting and private equity firms with little expertise in the tasks to which they were assigned, exacerbating chronic problems in obtaining supplies for hospitals and other needs, according to numerous government officials and a volunteer involved in the effort. […] Although some of the volunteers have relevant backgrounds and experience, many others were poorly matched with the jobs they were assigned, including those given the task of securing personal protective equipment, or PPE, for hospitals nationwide, according to a complaint filed last month with the House Oversight Committee. The complaint, obtained by The Washington Post, was submitted by a volunteer who has since left the group and who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from the administration. Key elements of the complaint were confirmed by six administration officials and one outside adviser to the effort, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. A spokeswoman for the oversight panel declined to comment. The document alleges that the team responsible for PPE had little success in helping the government secure such equipment, in part because none of the team’s members had significant experience in health care, procurement or supply-chain operations. In addition, none of the volunteers had existing relationships with manufacturers or a clear understanding of customs requirements or Food and Drug Administration rules, according to the complaint and two senior administration officials.” [Washington Post, 5/5/20]
Kushner Taskforce Volunteers Used Personal Email Accounts, Were Told To Save And Share Each Of Their Emails. According to The Washington Post, “The team of volunteers focused on PPE had trouble developing manufacturer relationships and making inroads with brokers, in part because they were using personal email accounts, rather than official government email addresses, the House Oversight Committee complaint states. Three senior administration officials confirmed the volunteers’ use of personal email addresses. In addition to the already challenging circumstances, the complaint also says that on some of the teams, ‘minimal attempts at social distancing are taken.’ Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that the volunteers should be classified as ‘special government employees’ and that the arrangement raises myriad concerns. ‘This is the problem with operating off the books,’ he said. ‘We just don’t know if they’re following the law or not.’ The volunteers were told to preserve and share a copy of all of their official emails, to comply with the Federal Records Act, according to the volunteer and administration officials. But Libowitz said that ‘by using private email accounts, we have no assurances that their emails are being preserved. . . . This doesn’t prove anything nefarious is going on, but if something nefarious was going on, this is how they would do it.’” [Washington Post, 5/5/20]
Kushner’s Group Worked And Communicated Over WhatsAPP. According to Vanity Fair, “Inside the White House, over much of March and early April, Kushner’s handpicked group of young business associates, which included a former college roommate, teamed up with several top experts from the diagnostic-testing industry. Together, they hammered out the outline of a national testing strategy. The group—working night and day, using the encrypted platform WhatsApp—emerged with a detailed plan obtained by Vanity Fair.” [Vanity Fair,07/30/20]
Kushner Taskforce Volunteers Had Trouble Developing Relationships With Manufacturers Because They Did Not Have Official Government Email Accounts. According to The Washington Post, “The team of volunteers focused on PPE had trouble developing manufacturer relationships and making inroads with brokers, in part because they were using personal email accounts, rather than official government email addresses, the House Oversight Committee complaint states. Three senior administration officials confirmed the volunteers’ use of personal email addresses ” [Washington Post, 5/5/20]
Providing No Scientific Research To Support His Claim, Trump Insisted Coronavirus Would Disappear By April As The Weather Got Warmer. According to USA Today, “Trump says Coronavirus will be gone by April when the weather gets warmer The president continued to suggest the Coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed 1,000 lives as of Monday, will be gone by April. He told the crowd that ‘in theory’ once the weather warms up Coronavirus, which he referred to as ‘the virus,’ will ‘miraculously’ go away. Trump did not offer any scientific explanation to back up his claim.” [USA Today, 2/10/20]
The CDC Refuted The Claim Stating “At This Time, Its Is Not Known Whether The Spread Of COVID-19 Will Decrease When Weather Becomes Warmer.”According to The Hill, “President Trump has suggested that the coronavirus outbreak will be gone by April because ‘the heat generally speaking kills this kind of virus,’ as reported by USA Today. He has appointed Vice President Pence to take charge of the U.S. response to the disease. But, will the coronavirus be responsive to seasonal changes similar to the flu? In short, there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that the spread of the disease will abate with warmer weather. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) notes that ‘at this time, it is not known whether the spread of COVID-19 will decrease when weather becomes warmer.’ COVID-19 is different from the virus strains that cause the flu even though it can lead to similar symptoms of respiratory problems.” [Hill, 2/28/20]
February 27, 2020: “When You Have 15 People, And The 15 Within A Couple Of Days Is Going To Be Down To Close To Zero, That’s A Pretty Good Job We’ve Done.” According to a transcript from the White House, “What it’s going to do is keep people home, and they’re going to travel to places that we have. We have the greatest — it’s the greatest tourism country in the world. So instead of leaving our country, leaving our shores, they’ll stay here. And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” [Whitehouse.gov, 2/27/20]
Breaking With The CDC Officials,Kudlow Claimed That That U.S. Had ‘Contained’ The Threat Of Domestic Coronavirus. “We Have Contained This, […] Pretty Close To Airtight.” According to Politico, ‘White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said Tuesday that the U.S. has ‘contained’ the threat of a domestic coronavirus outbreak, breaking with the warnings of officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ‘We have contained this, I won’t say airtight but pretty close to airtight,’ Kudlow told CNBC’s Kelly Evans on Tuesday afternoon. Kudlow’s confidence was set against U.S. stocks, which suffered their worst day in two years on Monday and were down again Tuesday amid fears that the coronavirus could mushroom into a pandemic. But the White House economic adviser suggested that the virus’ impact is ‘not going to last forever.’ ‘This is a human tragedy,’ particularly in China, Kudlow emphasized multiple times. But warning against overreaction, he added, ‘The business and the economic side, I don’t think it’s going to be an economic tragedy at all. There’ll be some stumbles.’ [Politico, 2/25/20]
Jared Kushner Reportedly Encouraged Trump To Downplay The Latest Coronavirus Developments. According to CNN, ‘Trump has been publicly downplaying coronavirus’ effects, because he thinks doing otherwise could cause further panic in the markets -- and he’s been frustrated with officials issuing warnings about the unknowns of the virus’s spread. His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is one aide who has encouraged him to downplay the latest developments, at least publicly, one person says.’ [CNN, 2/26/20]
Prior To His Initial Press Conference On The Coronavirus, Trump Learned Of The First Non-Travel Related Case Of Coronavirus Spread Within The United States But Did Not Address It In His Remarks. According to The Washington Post, “Minutes before President Trump was preparing Wednesday to reassure a skittish nation about the coronavirus threat, he received a piece of crucial information: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had identified in California the first U.S. case of the illness not tied to foreign travel, a sign that the virus’s spread in the United States was likely to explode. But when Trump took to the lectern for a news conference intended to bring transparency to the spiraling global crisis, he made no explicit mention of the California case and its implications — and falsely suggested the virus might soon be eradicated in the United States. ‘And again, when you have 15 people — and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero — that’s a pretty good job we’ve done,’ he said.” [Washington Post, 2/29/20]
Trump Contributed To Misinformation By Repeated Undermining Of Experts, Disputing WHO Death Rate, And Downplaying Dangers Of Virus On TV. According to Bloomberg, “Across the U.S., government officials fighting the disease are wrangling with a population made dubious by years of Internet misinformation and a politics based on the debasing of facts. The World Health Organization has said that a global ‘infodemic’ makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance. ‘We are all working fastidiously to get communication out,’ said Trevor Thomas, an epidemiologist with the Georgia Department of Public Health in Waycross, where officials have been trying in vain to dissuade people from buying every face mask in sight, even though basic hand-washing and cough-covering are more effective. ‘There’s a disconnect with the public, particularly on the preparedness side of things.’ The disconnect starts at the top, with President Donald Trump’s repeated undermining of health officials’ assessment of coronavirus risks. With no evidence, Trump last week disputed the death rate from the WHO and downplayed the virus’ dangers on national television.” [Bloomberg, 3/9/20]
A Federal Official Alleged That The White House Overruled Health Officials Who Wanted To Recommend That Elderly And Physically Fragile Americans Be Advised Not To Fly On Commercial Airlines. According to the Associated Press, “The White House overruled health officials who wanted to recommend that elderly and physically fragile Americans be advised not to fly on commercial airlines because of the new coronavirus, a federal official told The Associated Press. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention submitted the plan as a way of trying to control the virus, but White House officials ordered the air travel recommendation be removed, said the official who had direct knowledge of the plan. Trump administration officials have since suggested certain people should consider not traveling, but have stopped short of the stronger guidance sought by the CDC.” [Associated Press, 3/8/20]
The White House Clashed With Airline Officials Over The Administration’s Demand That Airlines Collect New Data From Passengers To Help Track Potential Virus Carriers. According to CNN, “The US aviation industry and the Trump administration are in a pitched battle over the response to the coronavirus pandemic, three sources familiar with recent calls between officials from several government agencies and US airlines have told CNN. In a series of contentious conversations, agency officials and aviation executives have clashed over the administration's demand that airlines collect new kinds of data from passengers to help officials track potential virus carriers. Airlines say they can't meet that demand right away -- a claim some administration officials say they don't believe, according to several sources who tell CNN the calls have deteriorated so badly that agency officials have issued threats, spat expletives and accused airline executives of lying. It is an ‘epic battle,’ said one source familiar with the talks.” [CNN, 3/9/20]
Administrations Officials Reportedly Displayed “A Lot Of Ignorance About What [Was] Possible.” According to CNN, “The administration officials' vitriol has left airline officials in a state of "shock and disbelief," one source said. Government officials have displayed ‘a lot of ignorance about what is possible,’ the source said. Others familiar with the talks contend the airlines seem to be acting unreasonably by not providing the data more quickly. Another factor adding to the friction is that the administration is considering an advisory discouraging Americans from commercial air travel. Airlines oppose this because of the body blow it would deal their industry, according to four sources familiar with the discussions. The battle over data is raging as the administration is coming under fire for failing to move quickly or competently enough to protect Americans from a virus that has already killed thousands worldwide and is beginning to hit the US, with more than 500 people infected and 22 dead.” [CNN, 3/9/20]
Trump Claimed That He Was ‘Not Concerned At All’ That The Coronavirus Was Getting Closer To The White House. According to the New York Times, “But he has also taken a business-as-usual approach to the rest of his schedule, refusing to cancel campaign rallies, fund-raisers or social events even as other large gatherings of Americans are scrubbed. Asked by a reporter on Saturday night if he was worried that infections were getting closer to the White House, Mr. Trump said, ‘No, I’m not concerned at all.’” [New York Times, 3/8/20]
At A Rally, Donald Trump Called The Coronavirus “Their New Hoax.” According to Politico, ‘President Donald Trump on Friday night tried to cast the global outbreak of the coronavirus as a liberal conspiracy intended to undermine his first term, lumping it alongside impeachment and the Mueller investigation. He blamed the press for acting hysterically about the virus, which has now spread to China, Japan, South Korea, Iran, Italy and the U.S, and he downplayed its dangers, saying against expert opinion it was on par with the flu. ‘The Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. They’re politicizing it,’ he said. ‘They don’t have any clue. They can’t even count their votes in Iowa. No, they can’t. They can’t count their votes. One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia.’ That did not work out too well. They could not do it. They tried the impeachment hoax.’ Then Trump called the coronavirus ‘their new hoax.’ Trump’s comments came as the White House has struggled to adequately respond to and contain the coronavirus’s increasingly sweeping path.’ [Politico, 2/28/20]
30 Year Old Died Of COVID While Echoing Trump’s “Hoax” Rhetoric
A 30-Year-Old COVID-19 Patient Died Shortly After Having Stated, “I Think I Made A Mistake, I Thought It Was A Hoax, But It’s Not.” According to ABC News, “‘I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not.’ Those were the final words of a 30-year-old patient who died at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio this week after attending a so-called ‘COVID party,’ according to the hospital. Dr. Jane Appleby, chief medical officer for Methodist Hospital and Methodist Children’s Hospital, said in a recorded statement that the unidentified patient told nurses about the party, which she said is hosted by someone diagnosed with coronavirus. ‘The thought is people get together to see if the virus is real and if anyone gets infected,’ Appleby said. Appleby said she shared the story not to scare people, but to make sure they understand that the virus can affect anyone.” [ABC News, 7/11/20]
Then Acting White House Chief Of Staff Mick Mulvaney Claimed That The Media Exaggerated The Seriousness Of Coronavirus To “Bring Down The President.” According to the New York Times, “Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, on Friday blamed the media for exaggerating the seriousness of coronavirus because ‘they think this will bring down the president, that’s what this is all about.’ Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of conservative activists, Mr. Mulvaney played down concerns about the virus that is spreading around the globe and panicking investors […] But Mr. Mulvaney claimed that the news media was too preoccupied covering impeachment, he said, ‘because they thought it would bring down the president.’ The media’s focus switched to the coronavirus for the same reason, he continued. ‘The reason you’re seeing so much attention to it today is that they think this is going to be the thing that brings down the president,’ he added. ‘That’s what this is all about it.” [New York Times, 2/28/20]
Trump Publicly Asked Health Officials, “So You’re Talking Over The Next Few Months, You Think You Could Have A Vaccine?” According to Politico, “Nearly every time President Donald Trump has talked about a coronavirus vaccine, he has gotten a real-time fact check from a health expert sitting nearby. “So you’re talking over the next few months, you think you could have a vaccine?” Trump asked during a meeting with top health officials on Monday. ‘You won’t have a vaccine,’ corrected Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar after some cross talk. ‘You’ll have a vaccine to go into testing.’ ‘All right, so you’re talking within a year,’ Trump said moments later. ‘A year to a year and a half,’ interjected Anthony Fauci, a government veteran of disease outbreaks under six presidents. ‘So you’re talking over the next few months, you think you could have a vaccine?’ Trump asked during a meeting with top health officials on Monday. At a time when the federal government is trying to carefully control messaging about the possibility of a cure for a disease that has already claimed the lives of 11 Americans, the president’s penchant for on-camera hyperbole has been a constant challenge.” [Politico, 3/5/20]
Trump Questioned Whether Traditional Flu Vaccine Could Have An Impact On Coronavirus. According to Politico, “Already, Trump has muddied the waters on the difference between a vaccine entering various trial phases and it being ready for widespread public use. While vaccines are able to be quickly developed by researchers, it takes time to get the vaccine on the market. Trump has also raised questions about whether a vaccine for the flu could work on this completely different virus. ‘You take a solid flu vaccine, you don’t think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?’ Trump asked. ‘No,’ a pharmaceutical researcher quickly replied.” [Politico, 3/5/20]
Trump Claimed He Had ‘A Natural Ability’ In Understanding The Science Of Coronavirus. According to New York Times, “By the president’s own account, the coronavirus has been an education for him. He has acknowledged that ‘I didn’t know people died from the flu’ — tens of thousands, in fact, each year in the United States — even though, as The Washington Post pointed out, his own grandfather died of influenza during the 1918 epidemic. But he has credited himself with instinctive understanding of the science. ‘I like this stuff. I really get it,’ he said at the C.D.C. on Friday. ‘People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.’ Mr. Trump rejected criticism of the slow distribution of test kits, framing it in terms evoking his battle against impeachment. ‘The tests are all perfect,’ he told reporters, ‘like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect, right?’ — a reference to the rough transcript of his telephone call with Ukraine’s president that led to his own impeachment for abuse of power.” [New York Times, 3/8/20]
Trump Claimed To Be In Charge Of A “Fast-Tracked” Vaccine Production, As Scientists And Health Experts Attempt To Manage Timeline Expectations Projecting The Development Of A Vaccine To Take 12 To 18 Months. According to CNBC, “President Donald Trump said Thursday that U.S. officials and scientists are working as quickly as possible to produce a coronavirus vaccine, and he asserted that he’s in charge of its development in ‘Operation Warp Speed.’ ‘I hope we’re going to have a vaccine and we’re going to fast-track a vaccine like you’ve never seen before if we come with a vaccine. I think they probably will,’ he told reporters during a White House meeting with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. ‘I’m not overpromising,’ he added. ‘Whatever the maximum is, whatever you can humanly do, we’re going to do.’ When asked by a reporter who is in charge of the vaccine operation, Trump said, ‘honestly, I am.’ ‘I’m really in charge of it,’ he said. ‘I think probably more than anything I’m in charge.’ Hopes to get a vaccine to market are high, but scientists want expectations to be low for how quickly it can happen. Developing, testing and reviewing any potential vaccine is a long, complex and expensive endeavor that could take months or even years. U.S. health officials have repeatedly said it would take at least 12 to 18 months to produce a usable vaccine against the virus.” [CNBC, 4/30/20]
Trump Said On Geraldo Rivera’s Radio Show That A Vaccine Would Be Ready For The Public “Right Around” The Election. According to Business Insider, “President Donald Trump claimed during a Thursday interview that a coronavirus vaccine may be ready for the American public "right around" the November 3 election. When asked on Geraldo Rivera's radio show whether a vaccine could be ready before the election, Trump replied, "I think in some cases, yes possible before, but right around that time." "I'm rushing it. I am. I'm pushing everybody," he said. "If you had another president, other than me, you wouldn't be talking vaccines for two years.” [Business Insider, 8/6/20]
August 2020: Trump Accused The Deep State Of Slowing Down The FDA’s Vaccine Development Efforts With The Goal Of Pushing It Past The Election. According to his twitter, “The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics. Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Must focus on speed, and saving lives! @SteveFDA” [Twitter, @realDonaldTrump, 08/22/20]
September, 2020: Trump Contrasted The Government’s Top Vaccine Accelerator By Saying, “I Think We Can Probably Have It Sometime In October.” According to Politico, “President Donald Trump again suggested that a coronavirus vaccine would ‘probably’ be available in October, contradicting assessments this week by top health officials who have said it would be very unlikely. Trump said in a press briefing Friday that there would be a vaccine ‘before the end of the year and maybe even before Nov. 1. I think we can probably have it sometime in October.’ The president's remarks came a day after the head of the government's vaccine accelerator, Moncef Slaoui, said that the government was ‘very unlikely’ to greenlight a vaccine by early November, because data from late-stage clinical trials of leading vaccine candidates would not be ready by then. ‘There is a very, very low chance that the trials that are running as we speak could read before the end of October,’ said Slaoui, who heads the government's Operation Warp Speed, told NPR. “I think it's extremely unlikely but not impossible, and therefore it's the right thing to do to be prepared in case.’ He is not alone in urging caution. While three vaccine developers have entered the final stages of trials, phase III, the studies take months and enroll tens of thousands of people. The federal government's top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, also cautioned this week that result could take longer.” [Politico, 09/04/20]
Trump Unveiled An Initiative Aimed At Making Hundreds Of Millions Of Doses Of A COVID-19 Vaccine Broadly Available, Projected Confidence Of A Vaccine By End Of Year 2020. According to the Washington Post, “President Trump formally unveiled an initiative Friday afternoon aimed at making hundreds of millions of doses of a coronavirus vaccine broadly available by year’s end — a goal that many scientists say is unrealistic and could even backfire by shortchanging safety and undermining faith in vaccines more broadly […] But Trump and other officials projected certainty Friday that an effective vaccine would be widely available by year’s end from among 14 promising candidates that had been winnowed from a field of more than 100. The chief scientist of the new initiative, pharmaceutical industry veteran Moncef Slaoui, even teased that he had seen early clinical data from an unspecified vaccine trial that gave him hope. ‘This data made me feel even more confident that we will be able to deliver a few hundred million doses of vaccine by the end of 2020,’ said Slaoui, who was chosen in a selection process that heavily involved Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx, according to two administration officials.” [Washington Post, 5/15/20]
Trump’s Press Conference About The Initiative Added To A Week Of Confusing And Contradictory Remarks About The Prospects And Timeline For A Vaccine. According to the Washington Post, “The Rose Garden news conference added to a week of confusing and contradictory remarks about the prospects and timeline for a vaccine, which is seen as the key to returning to normal life. A day earlier, a former top U.S. vaccine official testified before Congress that he was doubtful about the 12-to-18-month time frame frequently touted as a goal. The head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases testified Tuesday that 12 to 18 months was possible but there was no guarantee a vaccine would work at all.” [Washington Post, 5/15/20]
Draft Memo By Esper To DoD Instructed To Prepare To Operate Without A Vaccine Until “At Least The Summer Of 2021.” According to a leaked draft memo obtained by Task and Purpose, “The Defense Department should prepare to operate in a "globally-persistent" novel coronavirus (COVID-19) environment without an effective vaccine until "at least the summer of 2021," according to a draft Pentagon memo obtained by Task & Purpose. "We have a long path ahead, with the real possibility of a resurgence of COVID-19," reads the memo, authored for Secretary of Defense Mark Esper but not yet bearing his signature. "Therefore, we must now re-focus our attention on resuming critical missions, increasing levels of activity, and making necessary preparations should a significant resurgence of COVID-19 occur later this year." [Task and Purpose, 5/19/20]
September, 2020: Trump Publicly Endorsed Atlas’ Ideas On Herd Immunity. According to The New York Times, “The core of his appeal in the West Wing rests in his libertarian-style approach to disease management in which the government focuses on small populations of at-risk individuals — the elderly, the sick and the immune-compromised — and minimizes restrictions for the rest of the population, akin to an approach used to disastrous effect in Sweden. The argument: Most people infected by the coronavirus will not get seriously ill, and at some point, enough people will have antibodies from Covid-19 to deprive the virus of carriers — ‘herd immunity.’ ‘Once you get to a certain number — we use the word herd — once you get to a certain number, it’s going to go away,’ Mr. Trump told Laura Ingraham on Fox News on Monday night.” [New York Times, 09/02/20]
September, 2020: Trump Claimed That Even If The Virus Did Not Just “Go Away,” Eventually Enough People Would Get It For Herd Immunity To Kick In. According to The Daily Beast, “Undeterred by mounting criticism over his repeated dismissals of the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump doubled down on his claim that the virus will ‘go away’ on Tuesday. Even if it doesn’t, he said, ‘herd mentality’ will take over and save us all. The president made the remarks during a 90-minute town hall event hosted by ABC News late Tuesday in which he repeated many of the same rosy predictions that have previously been proven wrong. Apparently conflating “herd mentality” with ‘herd immunity’—which occurs when a large enough proportion of the population has built up immunity to an infectious disease, often through vaccination—the president insisted the country will recover from the pandemic even without a vaccine. ‘It would go away without the vaccine … but it’s going to go away a lot faster with it,’ Trump said, adding that ‘with time, it goes away.’ ‘And many deaths,’ ABC’s George Stephanopoulos noted. The president continued on as if he had not heard the remark, explaining that ‘you’ll develop like a herd mentality. It’s going to be herd-developed, and that’s going to happen, that will all happen …. But I really believe we’re rounding the corner.’ When Stephanopoulos reminded him that even one of the lead members of the White House’s own coronavirus task force, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has disagreed with that assessment, Trump said: ‘But you know a lot of people do agree with me.’” [Daily Beast, 09/15/20]
Trump Stated That He Thought The World Health Organization’s Coronavirus Death Rate Was A “False Number” Because Of A “Hunch.” According to Politico, “And he's raised doubts about other aspects of coronavirus using language that scientists find troubling. Appearing Wednesday night on Sean Hannity's Fox News show, Trump described the World Health Organization’s official 3.4 percent coronavirus death rate as a ‘false number’ based on a ‘hunch.’ While the figure may eventually come down, as the current data may not include some undetected cases, it is not ‘false.’ Trump explained it this way: ‘If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better, just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work, some of them go to work, but they get better.’” [Politico, 3/5/20]
Trump Compared Coronavirus To Car Crash Fatalities. According to Politico, “Still, Trump leaned on several dubious arguments to support his position. He fell back on a widely panned comparison between the fatality rates of coronavirus and the common flu, the latter of which can kill tens of thousands of Americans a year. He also repeated a similarly criticized comparison of coronavirus to the number of Americans killed in car crashes annually. Experts have called both attempts to draw parallels with coronavirus instances of false equivalency.” [Politico, 3/23/20]
Experts Called It A False Equivalency. According to Politico, “Still, Trump leaned on several dubious arguments to support his position. He fell back on a widely panned comparison between the fatality rates of coronavirus and the common flu, the latter of which can kill tens of thousands of Americans a year. He also repeated a similarly criticized comparison of coronavirus to the number of Americans killed in car crashes annually. Experts have called both attempts to draw parallels with coronavirus instances of false equivalency.” [Politico, 3/23/20]
Without Evidence, Trump Claimed That The Economic Downturn Caused By Social Distancing Could Result In More Deaths “Than Anything We Are Talking About With Respect To The Virus.” According to Politico, “The president complained that he didn’t want to let the ‘cure’ to the fast-spreading pandemic — social isolation that has prompted the shuttering of businesses across the country and cratered the economy — to be worse than the disease itself. He even claimed, without evidence, that the economic downturn caused by continuing the social distancing recommendation could result in more deaths ‘than anything we are talking about with respect to the virus’ […] Then Trump asserted that economic downturns could be fatal in their own right. ‘People get tremendous anxiety and depression, and you have suicides over things like this, when you have terrible economies. You have death,’the president argued, adding — without evidence — that ‘probably ... definitely, it would be in far greater numbers than the numbers we’re talking about with regard to the virus.” [Politico, 3/23/20]
Trump Falsely Exaggerated That The US Had Tested More Than “Every Country Combined.” According to Politifact, “President Donald Trump claimed at a White House briefing that the United States has well surpassed other countries in testing people for the virus. ‘We’ve tested more than every country combined,’ Trump said April 27. It was a variation on claims he had made April 24, as well as on Twitter the day after — when he said the United States had tested ‘more than any other country in the world, and even more than all major countries combined.’ The president has made a habit of exaggerating the United States’ capacity for COVID-19 diagnostic testing. But the health system has ramped up its testing since its slow start during the first weeks of the American outbreak. So we wanted to check back. How many people here have been tested? And has the U.S. tested more people than ‘every country combined’? We emailed the White House for comment but never heard back, so we turned to the data. Trump’s claim didn’t stand up to scrutiny. In raw numbers, the United States has tested more people than any other individual country — but nowhere near more than ‘every country combined’ or, as he said in his tweet, more than ‘all major countries combined.’” [Politifact, 4/30/20]
Mnuchin Urged People To “Explore” The US Despite CDC Warning Against Non-Essential Travel. According to Talking Points Memo, “During an interview with Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo on Monday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said it was ‘too hard to tell at this point’ whether international travel would be possible this year due to COVID-19. ‘But it’s great time to explore America,’ the Trump administration official told Bartiromo. ‘A lot of people haven’t seen many parts of America.’ ‘I wish I could get back on the road soon,’ he added. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) guidelines urge people against embarking on any kind of non-essential travel, including road trips. ‘Travel increases your chances of getting and spreading COVID-19,’ the agency warned. ‘CDC recommends you stay home as much as possible, especially if your trip is not essential, and practice social distancing especially if you are at higher risk of severe illness.’” [Talking Points Memo, 5/4/20]
Trump Used His Repeated Wartime Analogy Referring To The Coronavirus Outbreak As An Attack And Comparing It To Pearl Harbor And 9/11. According to The New York Times, “In addition to the damage to the country, Mr. Trump has long viewed the pandemic through the lens of his political prospects. He openly admitted in March that he did not want to let infected patients from a cruise ship disembark because it would increase the number of cases counted in the United States. He essentially made the same calculation on Wednesday by saying that more testing only reveals more infections and therefore increases the numbers. ‘In a way, by doing all this testing we make ourselves look bad,’ he said. Mr. Trump returned to his military analogy at one point on Wednesday, calling Americans ‘warriors’ in the battle and comparing the virus outbreak, which he blamed on China, to sneak attacks by Japan on Dec. 7, 1941, and Al Qaeda on Sept. 11, 2001. ‘This is worse than Pearl Harbor,’ he said. ‘This is worse than the World Trade Center. There has never been an attack like this.’” [New York Times, 5/6/20]
Trump Claimed “This Is Going To Go Away Without A Vaccine.” According to The Washington Post, “President Trump has been bullish about a coronavirus vaccine — so much so that experts have had to talk him off a more aggressive timeline for it. But on Friday, Trump seemed to shift his rhetoric on the topic, saying we don’t even need one for the virus to go away. ‘I just rely on what doctors say,’ Trump said when pressed. Except that’s not what his coronavirus task force doctor, Anthony S. Fauci, says. Trump offered his new comments about the potential vaccine Friday afternoon at the White House. ‘I feel about vaccines like I feel about tests: This is going to go away without a vaccine,’ Trump said. ‘It’s going to go away, and we’re not going to see it again, hopefully, after a period of time.’ Trump said that there could be ‘flare-ups,’ including in the fall, but that it would go away regardless. ‘There are some viruses or flus that came and they went for a vaccine, and they never found the vaccine,’ Trump said. ‘And they’ve disappeared. They never showed up again. They die, too, like everything else.’ Pressed on the claim, he doubled down. ‘They say it’s going to go — that doesn’t mean this year — doesn’t mean it’s going to be gone, frankly, by fall or after the fall,’ Trump said. ‘But eventually it’s going to go away. The question is will we need a vaccine. At some point it’s going to probably go away by itself. If we had a vaccine that would be very helpful.’” [Washington Post, 5/8/20]
Fauci Refuted Trump’s Claims That The Virus Would Disappear And Asserted The Coronavirus Crisis Wouldn’t Be Fully Averted Until A Working Vaccine Is Developed. According to The Washington Post, “Fauci, though, has said we need a vaccine. A few weeks ago, Fauci was asked on Fox News about comments Joe Biden had made, that ‘this isn’t going to be over until we have a vaccine.’ Fauci responded: ‘There’s truth to that. It’s not going to be over to the point of our being able to not do any mitigation until we have a scientifically sound, safe and effective vaccine.’ A week earlier, at a White House briefing, Fauci was asked whether we will ‘truly get back to normal in this country before there’s an actual vaccine that’s available to everybody.’ Fauci said we wouldn’t. ‘If ‘back to normal’ means acting like there never was a coronavirus problem, I don’t think that’s going to happen until we do have a situation where you can completely protect the population,’ Fauci said.” [Washington Post, 5/8/20]
July 2020: In The First Of His Resumed Daily Press Conferences, Trump Claimed COVID-19 Would “Disappear.” According to The White House’s Transcript of Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing,In Response to the question, “You’ve been saying for months the virus would simply disappear, and now you’re saying that it’s likely to get worse before it gets better. If it does keep getting worse, if Americans keep dying, are you responsible for them?” Trump said, “Well, the virus will disappear. It will disappear. I think that — I always like to say, as — you know, either way, when you look at it, the governors are working with me. I’m working with the governors. We’re working hand in hand. I think we’re all responsible. I view it as a team. Very good relationships with the governors. Very, very good relationships. I could say I’m fully responsible. But, you know, one day, we had a virus come in, and I closed the borders, did a lot of things that were very good. In fact, Dr. Fauci said we saved tens of thousands of lives when I closed the border. And nobody wanted to do it. I wanted to do it. We closed the border to China. We put on the ban. We didn’t want people coming in from heavily infected China. Fairly shortly thereafter, I closed the borders from Europe — coming in from Europe. Those were tremendous moves. We would have — if it’s one person, it’s too much. But we’re at, let’s say, 140,000; we could have double, triple, quadruple that number if we didn’t. So we did a lot of things right. We did a lot of things right, including with equipment. So it’s a shame that it happened. It shouldn’t have happened. China should have stopped it.” [White House, 07/21/20]
Peter Navarro Called Media Coverage Of Unemployment Rate A “Pity Party.” According to Talking Points Memo, “White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday disparaged the media’s coverage of the staggering 14.7 percent unemployment rate in April caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. “That was a pity party yesterday on the Sunday shows,” Navarro complained on “Fox and Friends,” singling out CBS News “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, ABC News “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos and “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace. “This is not the Great Depression,” the White House official continued. “Anybody who thinks this is the Great Depression doesn’t understand either history or economics.” [TPM, 5/11/20]
Peter Navarro Criticized The CDC’s Response To COVID-19, Saying The CDC “Really Let The Country Down With The Testing.” According to Washington Post, “Tensions between the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spilled out into public view on Sunday as a top adviser to President Trump criticized the public health agency’s response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The comments by White House trade adviser Peter Navarro are the latest signal of how the Trump administration has sought to sideline the CDC. The agency typically plays the lead role in public health crises, but in recent weeks it’s had its draft guidance for reopening held up by the White House, leaving states and localities to largely fend for themselves. Speaking on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” Navarro sharply criticized the CDC over its production of a flawed coronavirus test kit that contributed to a nationwide delay in testing. ‘Early on in this crisis, the CDC — which really had the most trusted brand around the world in this space — really let the country down with the testing,’ Navarro said. ‘Because not only did they keep the testing within the bureaucracy, they had a bad test. And that did set us back.’” [Washington Post, 5/17/20]
Azar Defended CDC From Navarro Criticism Saying, “I Don’t Believe The CDC Let This Country Down.” According to the Washington Post, “The CDC did not respond to a request for comment. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, whose agency oversees the CDC, pushed back against Navarro’s criticism in an interview on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation.’ ‘I don’t believe the CDC let this country down,’ Azar said when pressed repeatedly on Navarro’s comments. ‘I believe the CDC serves an important public health role. And what was always critical was to get the private sector to the table [on testing].’” [Washington Post, 5/17/20]
Trump Falsely Asserted That 99 Percent Of Cases Were “Harmless.” According to CNN, “Playing with fire at a time when experts say the spread of the virus appears to be spiraling out of control, Trump continued gaslighting Americans about the threat to their health during a Fourth of July speech from the South Lawn of the White House, where he minimized the dangers of Covid-19 with a baseless statement that 99% of coronavirus cases are ‘harmless,’ a claim his Food and Drug Administration chief could not back up Sunday morning.” [CNN, 7/6/20]
July 2020: Trump Falsely Claimed “We Have The Best Mortality Rate.” According to The New York Times, “The president made a litany of false claims about his administration’s handling of the virus, despite evidence that key officials and public health experts advising the president made crucial missteps and played down the spread of the disease this spring. In the interview, Mr. Trump falsely claimed that the United States had ‘one of the lowest mortality rates in the world’ from the virus. ‘That’s not true, sir,’ Mr. Wallace said. ‘Do you have the numbers, please?’ Mr. Trump said. ‘Because I heard we had the best mortality rate.’ The United States has the eighth-worst fatality rate among the countries currently most affected by the coronavirus, and the death rate per 100,000 people — 42.83 — ranks it third-worst, according to data on the countries most affected by the coronavirus compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Trump said that by increasing testing, his administration was ‘creating trouble for the fake news to come along and say, “Oh, we have more cases.” [New York Times, 07/19/20]
“They Are Dying, That’s True. […] It Is What It Is,” Trump Dismissed The Scale Of The Impact Of COVID-19 On America, “We’ve Done A Great Job.” According to NBC News, “President Donald Trump said in an interview that the coronavirus in the United States is under control and that the rising death toll ‘is what it is’ as cases have surged in some states. In the interview with Axios’ Jonathan Swan last week that aired in full Monday night on HBO, Trump was asked how the virus is under control when 1,000 Americans are dying each day. ‘They are dying, that's true. And you have — it is what it is. But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it. This is a horrible plague,’ Trump said. Asked how he thinks 1,000 deaths a day is as much as the U.S. can control the outbreak, the president said, "First of all, we have done a great job. We've gotten the governors everything they needed. They didn't do their (jobs) — many of them didn't, and some of them did. ‘Someday, we'll sit down, we'll talk about the successful ones, the good ones ... We had good and bad. And we had a lot in the middle,’ he added.” [NBC News, 08/04/20]
As Trump Claimed There Were “Zero Unfilled Requests” For PPE And Other Critical Supplied, 13 States Still Had Outstanding Orders. According to ABC News, “During his first coronavirus press briefing in nearly three months, President Donald Trump said his administration had filled every single request it has received from the nation’s governors for supplies to battle the coronavirus. But contrary to Trump's claim, officials in 13 states told ABC News they still have requests pending for critical equipment as the virus spreads through much of the country. ‘My administration currently has zero unfilled requests for -- unfulfilled requests for equipment or anything else that they need from the governors,’ Trump said on Tuesday. ‘No governor needs anything right now and we think we’ll have it that way until the end because frankly we are stocked up and ready to go.’ However, nearly half of the state officials with whom ABC News spoke, some of which are in states seeing a rise in coronavirus cases, said they've asked for a range of supplies, from thousands of N95 masks and ventilators to COVID-19 testing equipment, which have run in critically short supply in some areas. For this report ABC News reached out to officials in all 50 states, and 29 provided relevant responses to questions about supply orders. Officials in Oregon, Indiana, Georgia, New Hampshire, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, North Carolina, Maryland, Michigan, Idaho, Utah and Washington each told ABC News they are either waiting for requests to be fulfilled, had identified orders that were never filled at all or have made recent requests that they understand are being processed. Other states, including especially hard-hit California, Arizona and South Carolina, said they had no outstanding orders with the government. Florida and Texas were among those that did not respond to ABC News' request for information.” [ABC News, 07/23/20]
Pence Said On Hannity That “We’ve Already Created More Jobs In The Last Three Months Than Joe Biden And Barack Obama Created In Their Eight Years In Office.” According to HuffPost, “Jaws collectively dropped on Twitter over Vice President Mike Pence’s latest boast about the number of jobs created during Donald Trump’s presidency. Pence on Wednesday told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Trump had “seen us through the worst pandemic in 100 years” and “we’ve already created more jobs in the last three months than Joe Biden and Barack Obama created in their eight years in office.” [HuffPost, 8/13/20]
Trump Refused To Commit To Following The Advice Of Health Experts Stating That “America Will Again And Soon Be Open For Business.” According to Politico, “President Donald Trump on Monday said he planned to pull the U.S. economy out of its coronavirus-induced slumber in a matter of weeks, and refused to commit to following the advice of his handpicked health experts — many of whom have warned that it will be a matter of months before it will be safe to reopen the country again — when reassessing guidelines for social isolation. ‘Our country wasn’t built to be shut down. This is not a country that was built for this,’ Trump insisted to reporters during a White House press briefing with his coronavirus task force on Monday evening, predicting that ‘America will again and soon be open for business. Very soon. A lot sooner than three or four months that somebody was suggesting.’” [Politico, 3/23/20]
Trump Initially Resisted Fauci’s First Social Distancing Recommendation. According to CNN, “Officials aren’t sure where Trump will ultimately land after 15 days -- and Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist who has pushed for tough mitigation steps -- will continue to act as a critical voice behind the scenes. Trump was initially resistant to Fauci’s recommendations that he take steps to encourage social distancing during the first go-around, people familiar with the deliberations said. After coming under intense criticism for not acting more decisively, Trump went ahead with the recommendations -- but remains unconvinced it was the right decision. […] One person who is not easing back is Fauci. If it were up to him, an official said, ‘there would be no contact between humans until July.’ In recent days, Fauci has been vocal in his disagreements with Trump -- including in interviews openly discussing his role in correcting the President’s false or misleading statements. ‘I can’t jump in front of the microphone and push him down,’ Fauci said in an interview with Science magazine. ‘OK, he said it. Let’s try and get it corrected for the next time.’” [CNN, 3/23/20]
Several Trump Businesses Resisted The Federal Call To Reduce Gatherings, While Others Met Reduced Services With Mass Employee Layoffs. According to Politico, “Some of Trump’s properties were initially slow to respond to government calls to limit business activities that involved large gatherings of people. Some kept advertising banquets and spa services, for instance. Other properties remain open in a limited capacity and are still promoting some activities, such as rounds of golf. The Trump International Hotel in Washington remains open even though only about 5 percent of its rooms are occupied, according to John Boardman, executive secretary-treasurer of the D.C. affiliate of Unite Here, which represents 172 employees at the hotel. About 160 employees, including bartenders, housekeepers, doormen, were laid off, he said.” [Politico, 3/26/20]
Guests At Trump Properties Repeatedly Ignored Local Mask Requirements Including At Events With Trump And Other Prominent Republicans. According to ABC News, “As the coronavirus surges across the country, several properties owned by President Donald Trump have continued to host gatherings with guests and employees that skirt state and city-mandated face covering ordinances as well as the organization's own public rules for resuming business during the pandemic. […] Amid the president's mixed signals, in recent weeks guests and employees at Trump hotels from Washington D.C. to North Carolina have attended events and gathered in common areas without wearing masks, flouting local mandates and guidelines that the president's own properties have issued, according to a review of social media posts. While Trump for months has refused to wear a face covering in public, the president on Monday tweeted an image of himself in a mask, writing that ‘many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can't socially distance.’ But hours later, Trump held at fundraiser at Trump International Hotel in D.C., where multiple guests including the president, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Sen. Lindsey Graham and Madison Cawthorn, who recently won a Republican primary runoff for a western North Carolina congressional seat, were all shown on camera at the hotel not wearing masks in the lobby, bunched closely together and not social distancing while the president and attendees did not appear to be eating or drinking, according to a video from the event posted by Cawthorn. At Tuesday's first White House coronavirus press briefing in weeks, the president was asked about not wearing a mask Monday night at his hotel, claiming that he was ‘pretty far away from people, but I would say this: I've explained it, I think, very well. If you're close together, I would put on the mask,’ despite video showing that not to be the case.” [ABC News, 07/21/20]
After Six Trump Businesses Closed Due To The Coronavirus Outbreak, Trump Began To Publicly Share His Intention To Ease Restrictions On Movement. According to The Washington Post, “President Trump’s private business has shut down six of its top seven revenue-producing clubs and hotels because of restrictions meant to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, potentially depriving Trump’s company of millions of dollars in revenue. Those closures come as Trump is considering easing restrictions on movement sooner than federal public health experts recommend, in the name of reducing the virus’s economic damage. In a tweet late Sunday, Trump said the measures could be lifted as soon as March 30. ‘WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,’ he wrote on Twitter. In his unprecedented dual role as president and owner of a sprawling business, Trump is facing dual crises caused by the coronavirus. As he is trying to manage the pandemic from the White House, limiting its casualties as well as the economic fallout, his company is also navigating a major threat to the hospitality industry.” [Washington Post, 3/23/20]
Medical Officials Stated That An Extended Period Of Social Distancing Was Vital To Slowing The Spread Of COVID-19.According to the New York Times, “Officials have said that the initial 15-day period for social distancing — limiting close contact between people by banning gatherings, closing schools and offices, encouraging remote work and urging people to maintain a six-foot distance from one another — is vital to slowing the spread of the virus, for which more than 30,000 people in the United States have tested positive. The 15-day period would end Monday. Dr. Anthony Fauci, an infectious diseases expert and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, has said in interviews that he believed that it would take several more weeks until people can start going about their lives in a more normal fashion. Other infectious disease experts suggest even harsher measures than social distancing are required to truly beat back the outbreaks in the United States.” [New York Times, 3/23/20]
March 24, 2020: Trump Announced He Hoped To Have The Country “Opened Up” By Easter. According to The Hill, “President Trump on Tuesday said he hopes to have the country ‘opened up’ by Easter — Sunday, April 12 — his most concrete goal to date for easing off restrictions meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Trump in a Fox News virtual town hall doubled down on his push to reopen businesses in a matter of weeks in order to reinvigorate an economy stunned by the growing pandemic. ‘You can destroy a country this way, by closing it down, where it literally goes from being the most prosperous,’ Trump said. ‘I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter,’ Trump later added. His decision to set a specific date came after days of discussion among advisers, but the truncated time frame breaks with public health experts and some lawmakers who have said containing the virus should take precedence.” [Hill, 3/24/20]
Trump Tweeted That The Coronavirus Cure Cannot ‘Be Worse Than The Problem Itself.’ According to the New York Times, “President Trump on Sunday night said that the government would reassess the recommended period for keeping businesses shut and millions of workers at home after this week, amid millions of job losses caused by the efforts to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. ‘WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,’ Mr. Trump tweeted in all capital letters shortly before midnight. ‘AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!’” [New York Times, 3/23/20]
March 23, 2020: Trump Admitted The Coronavirus Crisis Could Worsen, But Still Advocated For Easing Social Distancing Guidelines To Boost The Economy. According to CNN, “President Donald Trump signaled Monday he is aware things may get worse before they get better as the country battles the coronavirus pandemic. But nonetheless he is itching to ease federal guidelines that have shuttered businesses and kept workers at home, insisting the economy must be reopened even if some of the health professionals on his team appear to disagree. ‘Our country wasn’t built to be shut down. This is not a country that was built for this. It was not built to be shut down,’ he said during an evening briefing at the White House, even as he acknowledged Monday the effects of coronavirus are likely to worsen. ‘Certainly, this is going to be bad,’ Trump said. The dueling positions underscored the dynamic currently animating Trump’s coronavirus task force, which is split on whether the self-isolating measures are worth the cost to the economy.” [CNN, 3/23/20]
Trump Teased A New Plan To Reopen Swaths Of The Country Previously Shuttered By Coronavirus Via A County-By-County Mitigation Effort. According to Politico, “President Donald Trump on Thursday teased a new plan to reopen swaths of the country shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic via a targeted, county-by-county mitigation effort. In a letter to the nation's governors released by the White House, Trump outlined a system to conduct ‘robust surveillance testing’ that would allow the federal government to ‘classify counties with respect to continued risks posed’ by the coronavirus, rather than apply one set of nationwide social distancing guidelines, as the CDC did a little over a week ago. The promise of new guidelines, which the president said his administration is still working on, represents the latest push by Trump to roll back restrictions on Americans' activities with the goal of blunting the economic devastation from the still-surging outbreak.” [Politico, 3/26/20]
Trump’s Shift Away From An Easter Deadline For Social Distancing Was Driven By Personal Tragedy And Polls. According to Vanity Fair, “Trump’s latest tonal and tactical shift (and almost certainly not the last) was driven by several factors, both personal and political. Trump learned that his close friend, 78-year-old New York real estate mogul Stan Chera, had contracted COVID-19 and fallen into a coma at NewYork-Presbyterian. ‘Boy, did that hit home. Stan is like one of his best friends,’ said prominent New York Trump donor Bill White. Trump also grew concerned as the virus spread to Trump country. ‘The polling sucked. The campaign panicked about the numbers in red states. They don’t expect to win states that are getting blown to pieces with coronavirus,’ a former West Wing official told me.” [Vanity Fair, 4/1/20]
Dr. Fauci And Senator Graham Warned Trump Against Making The Impulsive Decision. According to Vanity Fair, “Trump’s impulsive decision—and its messy aftermath—consumed the West Wing during the critical week that governors were pleading with the White House to deliver medical supplies before hospital systems began to collapse. ‘It was totally crazy,’ the Republican told me. Dr. Fauci, Senator Lindsey Graham, and others raced to convince Trump that an Easter opening would be a cataclysmic error that could cost millions of lives. ‘This is a very, very stressful situation for everybody, including me,’ Fauci told me in a phone interview on Monday. By last weekend Fauci’s arguments broke through: Trump agreed to extend the social distancing guidelines until the end of April.” [Vanity Fair, 4/1/20]
The CDC Proposed New Guidelines Allowing Asymptomatic People Exposed To The Virus To Return To Work By Wearing Masks And Receiving Regular Temperature Checks. According to The Hill, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is considering new guidelines for those exposed to the coronavirus who do not show symptoms, according to a report by NBC. The newly proposed guidelines would reportedly allow asymptomatic people who were exposed to the virus to resume work under the conditions that they would wear a mask and have their temperature checked regularly. ‘I can tell you the CDC will have new guidance tomorrow that the CDC will be publishing for people who were in proximity to an individual that tested positive for coronavirus but have no symptoms,’ Vice President Pence said during Tuesday’s coronavirus task force briefing. ‘Some of the best minds here at the White House are beginning to think about what recommendations will look like that we give to businesses, that we give to states, but it will all, I promise you, be informed on putting the health and well-being of the American people first,’ Pence said. The newly proposed guidance would aim to reduce some of the more restrictive CDC guidelines, which require essential workers to isolate for 14 days if exposed to the virus, regardless of whether or not they show symptoms.” [Hill, 4/8/20]
Pushing For State’s To Reopen And End Social Distancing Guidelines, Trump Asserted His Power As President Superseded That Of The Governors, Claiming He Had “Total Authority” As President. According to Politico, “President Donald Trump, hours after governors on both coasts announced regional plans for reopening their states, asserted ‘total authority’ over decisions about when and how to emerge after coronavirus shutdowns. ‘When somebody’s president of the United States, the authority is total,’ Trump said at a press briefing Monday when asked about the governors' plans. ‘And that’s the way it’s got to to be. It's total. It’s total. And the governors know that.’ ‘You have a couple bands of Democratic governors, but they will agree to it,’ Trump continued about the governors, who also include Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker. ‘They will agree to it. But the authority of the president of the United States, having to do with the subject we’re talking about, is total.’ Trump's evening remarks followed a pair of tweets he sent earlier in the day saying reopening the country won't be up to governors. Leaders of states in the Northeast and West Coast representing nearly a third of the U.S. population subsequently announced plans to do just that on their own timelines.” [Politico, 4/14/20]
Cases Of COVID-19 Began To Spike In Farm Belt States Trump Had Cited As Successful Examples That Had Not Imposed State-Wide Lockdowns. According to Politico, “The only hospital in Grand Island, Neb., is full. The mayor has asked for a statewide stay-at-home order that the GOP governor insists isn’t needed. More than one-third of those tested for coronavirus in the surrounding county are positive — and there aren’t enough tests to go around. Except that new cases there and in Iowa, South Dakota and other parts of the heartland are starting to spike, raising concern about new hot spots that could quash Trump’s push to reopen the economy and extend the public health crisis well into the summer. Grand Island is the fourth-biggest city in a state President Donald Trump and his top health officials repeatedly name check for keeping the virus at bay without the strict lockdowns 42 other states have imposed. Trump and red state governors for weeks have fairly bragged about how large parts of the farm belt have escaped the ravages of the virus without the enforced shelter-in-place policies common on both coasts. It’s still unclear whether the states actually ‘flattened the curve,’ or if the virus just reached there later. But now, cases are erupting, threatening a local population that doesn’t always have easy access to the same health care as more urban areas. And the outbreaks are striking the heart of the nation’s farming and meatpacking industry, potentially disrupting the national distribution of food as meat processing plants close down and truckers who move food across the country are sidelined by illness.” [Politico, 4/15/20]
A Study Conducted At Columbia University Projected Roughly 54,000 Fewer People Would Have Died As Of May Had The United States Begun Social Distancing On March 1st. According to The New York Times, “If the United States had begun imposing social distancing measures one week earlier than it did in March, about 36,000 fewer people would have died in the coronavirus outbreak, according to new estimates from Columbia University disease modelers. And if the country had begun locking down cities and limiting social contact on March 1, two weeks earlier than most people started staying home, the vast majority of the nation’s deaths — about 83 percent — would have been avoided, the researchers estimated. Under that scenario, about 54,000 fewer people would have died by early May. The enormous cost of waiting to take action reflects the unforgiving dynamics of the outbreak that swept through American cities in early March. Even small differences in timing would have prevented the worst exponential growth, which by April had subsumed New York City, New Orleans and other major cities, the researchers found.” [New York Times, 5/20/20]
Trump Administration Officials Warned Of Increased Hostilities Between Governors And Trump As He Continued To Push For States To Reopen Their Economies And Relax Health Guidelines. According to Politico, “President Donald Trump is preparing for a long battle with America’s governors to save himself from the political fallout from coronavirus. Over the next two weeks at the urging of the Trump administration, the map of the U.S. will start to resemble a patchwork quilt, with some states open for business while others remain locked down because of the spread of the virus. Trump has said the onus for reopening states lies with their leaders, but he has simultaneously tried to pressure governors into restarting businesses and relaxing health guidelines as soon as possible. Senior administration officials and Trump advisers say the level of hostility between the president and governors will probably only increase in the coming days, in part because Trump sees so much political opportunity in stoking those divisions during his reelection campaign. Governors have become his latest political foil, along with China and the World Health Organization, and he’s trying to bully and scapegoat them amid his administration’s response to the pandemic. ‘People’s initial reaction is always to look to the president, but as time goes on and it becomes clear other states are doing other things, that blame and credit will shift to the governors, considering they are the ones making the calls,’ one Trump political adviser said.” [Politico, 4/20/20]
Trump Stoked Protests Against States’ Stay At Home Orders. According to Politico, “But the talks would likely be contentious, with Democrats pushing for broader economic aid measures than Republicans are willing to accept at this point. Bank lobbyists believe GOP lawmakers may become more skittish about approving billions in additional funding to prop up the economy amid a growing protest movement stoked by President Donald Trump against stay-at-home orders.” [Politico, 4/20/20]
Trump Urged Michigan Governor Whitmer To Make A Deal With Those Protesting The State’s Stay-At-Home Orders Who Trump Described As “Very Good People.” According to The Hill, “President Trump on Friday urged Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) to negotiate and ‘make a deal’ with those protesting her stay-at-home order in the state. ‘The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire,’ Trump tweeted Friday morning. ‘These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal.’ Whitmer extended the stay-at-home order in her state on Thursday, after hundreds of protesters, some of them armed, demonstrated outside the state Capitol. The Republican-led legislature, meanwhile, debated inside and ultimately declined to extend the state’s emergency declaration and voted to bring forth a lawsuit challenging Whitmer’s power.” [Hill, 5/1/20]
Trump Lashed Out At Maryland Governor Larry Hogan For Securing 500,000 Coronavirus Tests From South Korea. According to Vox, “Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) followed President Donald Trump’s advice and took coronavirus testing into his own hands. Trump attacked him anyway. Trump began Monday’s White House coronavirus briefing by criticizing Hogan — chair of the National Governors Association — for turning to a foreign source to buy coronavirus tests. ‘The governor of Maryland didn’t really understand,’ Trump said, describing a call that Vice President Mike Pence had with governors earlier in the day to encourage them to do more to increase coronavirus testing on their own. ‘He didn’t really understand what was going on.’ Trump was upset because Hogan and his wife — Yumi Hogan, a Korean immigrant — not only announced earlier Monday that they purchased 500,000 test kits from suppliers in South Korea, but also because Hogan indirectly criticized him during an interview with the New York Times.” [Vox, 4/20/20]
Trump Accused Governors Asking For Increased Testing As Part Of A Political Conspiracy To “Bring Him Down.” According to Vox, “Trump, however, refuses to acknowledge there’s more he could do. Later during Monday’s briefing, the president suggested that governors like Hogan who have urged him to ramp up national testing efforts are part of a political conspiracy to bring him down. Trump’s line in recent days has been to claim, without evidence, that other countries are reaching out to the US for help because testing here is going so great. Hogan’s announcement suggested that talk is a bunch of nonsense — and Trump wasn’t pleased. At another point during Monday’s briefing, CNN’s Kaitlin Collins asked White House officials why Hogan would need to turn to South Korea for testing kits if it’s true, as Trump claims, that states already have enough testing capacity to begin the process of reopening business and schools. Nobody had a good answer. Later, Trump returned to the podium and said that Hogan should’ve just called Mike Pence. ‘The governor of Maryland could’ve called Mike Pence and saved a lot of money,’ Trump said. ‘I think he needed to get a little knowledge.’” [Vox, 4/20/20]
Attorney General Barr Threatened That The DOJ May Take Action Against Governors With Strict Coronavirus Guidelines. According to Forbes, “Attorney General William Barr said in an interview on Tuesday that the Justice Department will consider taking legal action against governors who don’t follow President Trump’s guidelines for reopening the country and continue to impose strict coronavirus lockdowns in their states after the crisis subsides. In his interview on The Hugh Hewitt Show, the attorney general said that state governments need to ‘do a better job’ of ensuring coronavirus restrictions are ‘properly targeted’ and do not infringe on constitutional rights. Some of the restrictions imposed by state governors so far infringe on the constitutional rights of American citizens, he said, without naming specific examples. While not explicitly disagreeing with the stay-at-home orders issued so far, he did say that some were ‘disturbingly close to house arrest,’ and that the U.S. currently faces ‘unprecedented burdens on civil liberties.’ Barr, who supports Trump’s plan to gradually reopen the country, said that the government must ‘tailor its approach’ after originally issuing ‘blunt’ restrictions that were only justified up to a point. To the extent that state governors don’t follow Trump’s guidance and ‘impinge on either civil rights or on the national commerce,’ Barr warned, the Department of Justice will ‘have to address that.’ ‘These are very, very burdensome impingements on liberty, and we adopted them, we have to remember, for the limited purpose of slowing down the spread,’ he emphasized.” [Forbes, 4/21/20]
Attorney General Barr Ordered Federal Prosecutors To “Be On The Lookout” For State And Local Coronavirus Rules That Infringe On American Constitutional And Civil Rights. According to The Huffington Post, “Attorney General William Barr ordered federal prosecutors to ‘be on the lookout’ for coronavirus-related measures from states and localities that could infringe upon Americans’ constitutional rights and civil liberties. In a memo to the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division as well as all 93 U.S. attorneys across the country, Barr indicated that the Trump administration may take legal action against state and local governments that impose excessive restrictions on citizens because of the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘If a state or local ordinance crosses the line from an appropriate exercise of authority to stop the spread of COVID-19 into an overbearing infringement of constitutional and statutory protections, the Department of Justice may have an obligation to address that overreach in federal court,’ Barr wrote. ‘Many policies that would be unthinkable in regular time have become commonplace in recent weeks, and we do not want to unduly interfere with the important efforts of state and local officials to protect the public,’ Barr wrote. ‘But the Constitution is not suspended in times of crisis. We must therefore be vigilant to ensure its protections are preserved, at the same time the public is protected.’” [Huffington Post, 4/27/20]
April 27, 2020: Coronavirus Testing Blueprint Released By The White House Outlined A Plan For Increased Testing; Public Health Experts Had Doubts It Was Sufficient To Reopen The Nation. According to the Associated Press, “The White House released new guidelines aimed at answering criticism that America’s coronavirus testing has been too slow, and President Donald Trump tried to pivot toward a focus on ‘reopening’ the nation. Still, there were doubts from public health experts that the White House’s new testing targets were sufficient. Monday’s developments were meant to fill critical gaps in White House plans to begin easing restrictions, ramping up testing for the virus while shifting the president’s focus toward recovery from the economic collapse caused by the outbreak. The administration unveiled a ‘blueprint’ for states to scale up their testing in the coming week — a tacit admission, despite public statements to the contrary, that testing capacity and availability over the past two months have been lacking. The new testing targets would ensure states had enough COVID-19 tests available to sample at least 2.6% of their populations each month — a figure already met by a majority of states. Areas that have been harder hit by the virus would be able to test at double that rate, or higher, the White House said.” [Associated Press, 4/28/20]
2.6% Testing Targets From White House Were Already Met By Majority Of States. According to the Associated Press, “The new testing targets would ensure states had enough COVID-19 tests available to sample at least 2.6% of their populations each month — a figure already met by a majority of states. Areas that have been harder hit by the virus would be able to test at double that rate, or higher, the White House said.” [Associated Press, 4/28/20]
Trump’s Testing Overview And Blueprint Guideline Documents Largely Defended The Administration’s Coronavirus Response And Backed Up Decision To Push Most Of Responsibility Onto The States. According to ABC News, “During the call, the president, Vice President Mike Pence and senior adviser Jared Kushner discussed a new ‘testing blueprint’ and ‘testing overview’ expected to be announced Monday evening. The two documents, which have been obtained by ABC News, lay out a plan -- broken into eight bullet points, under three categories: launch, scale and support opening up again. The documents largely summarized steps the administration had already taken, retroactively providing an argument for the White House’s decision to push most of the responsibility for scaling up and conducting testing to the states. ‘Testing plans and rapid response programs will be federally supported, State managed, and locally executed,’ the ‘blueprint’ document reads. A number of state governors have criticized this approach, saying only the federal government has the ability to accelerate testing capacity and coordinate a national testing strategy.” [ABC News, 4/27/20]
April 16, 2020: White House Recommendations To Reopen Included Schools Reopening In Stage Two. According to ABC News, “On April 16, the White House rolled out recommendations for states to roll back social distancing restrictions over three stages, providing they met certain testing, health care and other criteria. The first phase called for some businesses to reopen, while the federal government did not recommend states reopen schools until the second phase. Asked by ABC News’ Karen Travers the next day how parents who are sent back to work should handle child care if schools had yet to open, Trump did not not have an answer. ‘I think the schools are going to be open soon,’ the president said. ‘I think a lot of governors are already talking about schools being open.’ Trump said he hoped his own 14-year-old son would return to school. He added that he thought ‘the schools are going to be open sooner rather than later.’ ‘I’ve spoken to some governors who were already talking about thinking about getting the schools open,’ he said at the time..” [ABC News, 4/27/20]
April 27, 2020: During A Call With Governors, Trump Asked States To Reopen Schools Before The End Of The Academic Year. According to The New York Times, “‘Undeterred, Mr. Trump said on Monday that states must reopen ‘as quickly as possible, but safely.’ He even called on governors to consider reconvening schools before the end of the academic year rather than waiting until the fall, as many districts have decided or expect to do. In a conference call with the governors devoted mainly to ventilators and testing, Mr. Trump on his own raised the idea of bringing students back to the classrooms in the next few weeks. ‘The young children have done very well in this disaster that we’ve all gone through, so a lot of people are thinking about the school openings,’ Mr. Trump said, according to an audio recording obtained by The New York Times. Addressing Vice President Mike Pence, who was also on the call, he added, ‘I think it’s something, Mike, they can seriously consider and maybe get going on it.’” [New York Times, 4/27/20]
Trump Minimized The Potential Risk Of Children Returning To School Disregarding The Ongoing Study Of Coronavirus’ Impact On Children. According to New York Times, “The president’s comments on Wednesday were an even more direct show of disapproval. And they came as health officials in New York were investigating more than 100 cases of a rare and dangerous inflammatory syndrome that afflicts children and appears to be connected to the virus. ‘Now when you have an incident, one out of a million, one out of 500,000, will something happen? Perhaps,’ Mr. Trump said, minimizing the risk to children of returning to school. ‘But you can be driving to school and some bad things can happen, too.’ Mr. Trump added: ‘This is a disease that attacks age and it attacks health and if you have a heart problem, if you have diabetes, if you’re a certain age, it’s certainly much more dangerous. But with the young children, I mean, and students, it is really just take a look at the statistics, it is pretty amazing.’ Medical experts who are beginning to learn more about how the virus affects children have said it is an oversimplification to consider them immune.” [New York Times, 5/13/20]
A New Study Revealed Strong Evidence Linking A Deadly Inflammatory Illness To The Coronavirus In Children Across The United States And Europe. According to New York Times, “As concerns mount over children with a serious and potentially deadly inflammatory condition, a new study sheds light on the illness’s distinctive characteristics and provides the strongest evidence yet that the syndrome is linked to the coronavirus. The condition, called pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome, has been reported in about 100 children in New York State, including three who died, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said this week. Cases have been reported in other states, including Louisiana, Mississippi and California, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said it will soon issue an alert asking doctors to report cases of children with symptoms of the syndrome. There have also been at least 50 cases reported in European countries, including in France, Switzerland, Spain and Britain, where at least one death has been attributed to the syndrome. In the new study, published on Wednesday in the journal Lancet, doctors in Italy compared a series of 10 cases of the illness with cases of a similar rare condition in children called Kawasaki disease.” [New York Times, 5/13/20]
The CDC Warned Physicians To Look Out And Report Symptoms Of A Coronavirus Linked Inflammatory Disease Found In Children. According to Huffington Post, “Surging cases of a mysterious illness in children linked to COVID-19 has triggered an alert by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to warn physicians what to look out for. Seventeen states have reported cases of what’s now labeled multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which can affect several organs and has been fatal in rare instances. New York has reported 102 cases. Three of the children died, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday. There’s also growing alarm across Europe about the cases. Paris scientists noted a 20-fold increase in the illness similar to Kawasaki disease in children, 82% who had contracted COVID-19. Italy has reported a 30-fold hike. The CDC alert also noted a study of recent cases in Britain. The troubling news comes as President Donald Trump is pushing for schools to reopen. On Wednesday, Trump criticized health expert Dr. Anthony Fauci’s warning Tuesday against reopening schools too quickly as he noted the troubling COVID-19 complications for children. Trump called Fauci’s advice ‘not an acceptable answer’ and urged that ‘all schools open as soon as possible.’ The CDC alert urges physicians seeing instances of the inflammatory syndrome to report them to local departments so cases, treatments and outcomes can be tracked. Children with the disease have had persistent fever and a variety of other symptoms, including low blood pressure, multi-organ complications and inflammation, the CDC alert said.” [Huffington Post, 5/14/20]
Fauci Cautioned That An Effective Vaccine Would Likely Not Be Developed In Time For The Start Of The Next School Year
Fauci Cautioned That While The Development Of A Vaccine Was Underway It Was Unlikely It Would Not Be Ready By The Next School Year. According to New York Times, “Scientists hope to know by late fall or early winter whether they have at least one possible effective vaccine, Dr. Fauci told the senators. Several experimental vaccines are already being tested in humans, including one that Dr. Fauci said his institute was heavily involved in, made by the company Moderna. But, Dr. Fauci cautioned, ‘even at the top speed we’re going, we don’t see a vaccine playing in the ability of individuals to get to school this term.’ Although Dr. Fauci said he was ‘cautiously optimistic’ that an effective vaccine would be developed, he warned there was no guarantee that it would happen. ‘You can have everything you think that’s in place, and you don’t induce the kind of immune response that turns out to be protective and durably protective,’ he said. Another concern is ‘disease enhancement,’ the possibility that a vaccine may induce an immune response that will make the illness worse instead of protecting people from the virus. ‘We want to make sure that doesn’t happen,’ Dr. Fauci said, adding, ‘I still feel cautiously optimistic that we will have a candidate that will give some degree of efficacy, hopefully a percentage enough that will induce the kind of herd immunity that would give protection to the population as a whole.’” [New York Times, 5/12/20]
Following Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Senate Testimony Trump Directly Rejected Fauci’s Cautious Stance On Reopening The Country Too Quickly, And Claimed Fauci, “Wants To Play All Sides Of The Equation.” According to New York Times, “President Trump on Wednesday criticized congressional testimony delivered a day earlier by Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, who had warned against reopening the country too quickly and stressed the unknown effects the coronavirus could have on children returning to school. ‘I was surprised by his answer,’ Mr. Trump told reporters who had gathered in the Cabinet Room for the president’s meeting with the governors of Colorado and North Dakota. ‘To me it’s not an acceptable answer, especially when it comes to schools.’ The president’s desire to reopen schools and businesses in order to bring back the economy has often led to public clashes over the guidance provided by Dr. Fauci, who has warned that taking a cavalier attitude toward reopening the country could invite unnecessary suffering caused by a virus scientists are still struggling to understand. He reiterated that position on Tuesday in testimony before a Senate committee. ‘He wants to play all sides of the equation,’ Mr. Trump said on Wednesday, before bragging that the economy next year would be ‘phenomenal.’” [New York Times, 5/13/20]
Trump Undermined The CDC Set Criteria By Encouraging States To Follow The Guidelines At Their Own Discretion. According to Politico, “Though some in the administration have publicly acknowledged, and even expressed concern, that states were lifting restrictions before slowing the virus’ spread, the president and his top advisers have largely cheered on the reopening states. They have also suggested that the CDC’s criteria are guidelines, not mandates, that states can use as they see fit.” [Politico, 5/5/20]
Trump Allowed His Stay Home Guidelines To Lapse Leaving States With Only CDC Recommendations As The White House Refocused On Opening The Economy. According to Politico, “The Trump administration’s ‘Stay at Home’ guidelines will quietly expire Thursday with little fanfare — letting states decide what’s next. But as President Donald Trump repeatedly declares that ‘we’re opening our country again,’ the inconsistent patchwork of state, local and business decision-making is exactly what could drive a second wave of the coronavirus — or potentially prolong the current outbreak. Instead of the national campaign to get people to stay home, the White House is leaving states with a set of CDC recommendations. They aren’t binding, and they aren’t all specific. That could lead to unexpected spikes across the country — sometimes in new places that didn’t see a bad outbreak, but also in cities that were recovering, only to suffer a setback.” [Politico, 4/29/20]
As Trump Pushed For States To Reopen Their Economies, FEMA Circulated Projections Of 200,000 New Cases And 3,000 Daily Deaths By June 1, 2020. According to The New York Times, “As President Trump presses for states to reopen their economies, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in the number of cases and deaths from the coronavirus over the next several weeks, reaching about 3,000 daily deaths on June 1, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times, nearly double from the current level of about 1,750. The projections, based on government modeling pulled together in chart form by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of the month, up from about 25,000 cases now. The numbers underscore a sobering reality: While the United States has been hunkered down for the past seven weeks, significant risks remain. And the reopening to the economy will make matters worse.” [New York Times, 5/4/20]
HHS And FEMA Staff Warned Of Mask, Gown, And Medical Gear Shortages Nationally On Conference Call Day After Trump Stay At Home Guidelines Expired. According to Politico, “President Donald Trump boasted on May 1 that his success in responding to the coronavirus pandemic has made ventilator, test kit and mask shortages a thing of the past, and that much of the country is ready to quickly send people back to work. ‘We’ve ensured a ventilator for every patient who needs one,’ he said. ‘The testing and the masks and all of the things, we’ve solved every problem. We solved it quickly.’ But that same day, his own health and emergency management officials were privately warning that states were still experiencing shortages of masks, gowns and other medical gear, according to a recording of an interagency meeting between FEMA and HHS officials across the country, conducted by conference call, which was obtained by POLITICO. Trump’s federal ‘Stay at Home’ guidelines had quietly expired the night before, leaving states to manage the pandemic as they saw fit. The officials also expressed concern that governors moving to reopen their economies while cases were still prevalent threatened to plunge the nation into a new and potentially deadlier chapter of the outbreak.” [Politico, 5/5/20]
The Trump Administration Buried Step-By-Step CDC Guidelines For Local Authorities To Reopen Public Places. According to The Associated Press, “The Trump administration has shelved a document created by the nation’s top disease investigators with step-by-step advice to local authorities on how and when to reopen restaurants and other public places during the still-raging coronavirus outbreak. The 17-page report by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team, titled ‘Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework,’ was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials as they begin to reopen. It was supposed to be published last Friday, but agency scientists were told the guidance ‘would never see the light of day,’ according to a CDC official. The official was not authorized to talk to reporters and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. The AP obtained a copy from a second federal official who was not authorized to release it. The guidance was described in AP stories last week, prior to the White House decision to shelve it.” [Associated Press, 5/7/20]
Trump Administration Released Six Decision Trees, But Kept The Rest Of Report Under White House Review. According to the Washington Post, “With Americans waiting for expert advice on how to resume a semblance of normal life during the pandemic, the CDC released just six short “decision trees” Thursday while the rest of its lengthy proposal remains under review at the White House, where it has been for weeks.” [WaPo, 5/15/20]
Later The CDC Published Reopening Guidelines After States Had Proceeded To Lift Stay At Home Orders. According to Politico, “The CDC this week quietly published detailed guidelines for reopening schools and businesses that have been shut down in the coronavirus pandemic. The 60-page document is the most extensive guidance yet offered by the health agency, which has spent weeks embroiled in controversy over how far it should go in influencing institutions' decisions about how to open safely. Yet it comes well after many states charged ahead with plans to lift stay-at-home orders, and as public health experts worry that the nation isn't prepared for the next crucial phase of a pandemic that has already killed more than 90,000 Americans in just four months.” [Politico, 5/20/20]
Trump Declared Churches And Religious Facilities “Essential” And Threatened To Use Unspecified Authority To Override Governors Who Refused To Allow Houses Of Worship To Reopen. According to the Associated Press, “President Donald Trump on Friday labeled churches and other houses of worship as ‘essential’ and called on governors nationwide to let them reopen this weekend even though some areas remain under coronavirus lockdown. The president threatened to ‘override’ governors who defy him, but it was unclear what authority he has to do so. ‘Governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important essential places of faith to open right now — for this weekend,’ Trump said at a hastily arranged press conference at the White House. Asked what authority Trump might have to supersede governors, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said she wouldn’t answer a theoretical question. Trump has been pushing for the country to reopen as he tries to reverse an economic free fall playing out months before he faces reelection. White evangelical Christians have been among the president’s most loyal supporters, and the White House has been careful to attend to their concerns throughout the crisis” [Associated Press, 5/22/20]
Early April: Trump Optimistically Claimed The Country Had Made Significant Progress To End The Crisis While Top Health Officials Predicted The Week Ahead’s Impact Would Be Like 9/11 Or Pearl Harbor. According to The Hill, “President Trump on Sunday struck a more optimistic tone about the country’s progress in its effort to combat the coronavirus even as some of his top health officials predicted the coming week would be akin to Pearl Harbor or the 9/11 attacks in terms of its impact. ‘We see light at the end of the tunnel. Things are happening,’ Trump said during a White House coronavirus task force briefing. ‘We’re starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. And hopefully in the not too distant future we’ll be very proud of the job we all did. You can never be happy when so many people are dying, but we’re going to be very proud of the job we did to keep the death down to an absolute minimum.’ The president and other members of the task force sought to assure the public that the country may be close to getting through the worst of the pandemic. While Trump s poke of a ‘light at the end of the tunnel,’ Vice President Pence identified ‘glimmers of hope,’ and coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx said data from Italy was giving the U.S. ‘hope for what our future could be.’” [Hill, 4/5/20]
April 29, 2020: Kushner Claimed The US Was Past “The Medical Aspect” And Asserted That The US Would Be Largely Back To Normal By June And “Really Rocking Again” By July. According to Business Insider, “Jared Kushner took a bullish stance on the coronavirus during a Fox News appearance on Wednesday morning. The White House senior adviser and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law said the goal was to have much of the US ‘back to normal’ by June and for the nation to be ‘really rocking again’ by July. He described the country as being ‘on the other side of the medical aspect of this,’ despite cases mounting in rural states. ‘The federal government rose to the challenge and this is a great success story,’ Kushner said on ‘Fox & Friends.’ ‘I think you’ll see by June a lot of the country should be back to normal and the hope is that by July the country’s really rocking again,’ Kushner added. Kushner argued that media coverage has mostly been focusing on the more negative ‘lagging indicators,’ pointing to what he described as the administration building a head of steam into reopening the economy by ramping up testing. ‘I always find that we see the leading indicators and often the media sees the lagging indicators,’ Kushner said. ‘But ... I’m very confident that we have all the testing we need to start opening the country [under the administration’s guidelines].’” [Business Insider, 4/29/20]
Late April: CDC Director Redfield Warned That There Was A Significant Possibility Of A Second Wave Of Both Coronavirus And The Flu Simultaneously. According to The Washington Post, “Even as states move ahead with plans to reopen their economies, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday that a second wave of the novel coronavirus will be far more dire because it is likely to coincide with the start of flu season. ‘There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,’ CDC Director Robert Redfield said in an interview with The Washington Post. ‘And when I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean.’ ‘We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time,’ he said. Having two simultaneous respiratory outbreaks would put unimaginable strain on the health-care system, he said. The first wave of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has already killed more than 42,000 people across the country. It has overwhelmed hospitals and revealed gaping shortages in test kits, ventilators and protective equipment for health-care workers.” [Washington Post, 4/21/20]
Trump Claimed CDC Director Redfield Was Misquoted In Statements Regarding The Potential For A Second Wave Of Coronavirus And Called On Redfield To Clarify His Comments. According to U.S. News, “CDC Director Walked Back His Comments Regarding A Second Wave The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was called on by President Donald Trump on Wednesday to walk back his remark that the second wave of novel coronavirus in the fall could be worse than the current situation. CDC Director Robert Redfield made the widely circulated comment in an interview Tuesday with the Washington Post. On Wednesday, Trump tweeted that the health expert was misquoted and would be putting out a statement. Redfield, however, said he was quoted accurately. ‘I think it’s really important to emphasize what I didn’t say: I didn’t say that this was going to be worse,’ Redfield said at the daily White House coronavirus briefing. ‘I said it was going to be more difficult and potentially complicated because we’re going to have flu and coronavirus circulating at the same time.’ Redfield’s remarks came as Trump appeared to downplay the risk that the coming fall or winter could bring another serious wave of COVID-19 combined with outbreaks of seasonal flu.” [U.S. News, 4/22/20]
Trump Said, “We Will Not Go Through What We Went Through In The Last Few Months […] It May Not Come Back At All.” According to U.S. News, “‘We will not go through what we went through in the last few months,’ Trump said. ‘It may not come back at all.’ Trump said, however, that there could be ‘embers of corona’ that could combine with flu to create ‘a mess.’ Even as Trump attempted to project optimism in the nation’s battle with the virus, he said he disagreed with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s aggressive push to re-open his state’s economy in violation of federal recommendations. Trump said that was too soon. ‘They can wait a little bit longer, just a little bit - not much,’ Trump said. ‘Because safety has to predominate. We have to have that.’ Even so, Trump said he was encouraged to see some states begin to open up their economies and ease restrictions. He announced that his administration will hold a July 4 celebration on the National Mall in Washington, as it did last year. At present, the capital remains under a stay-at-home order through May 15.” [U.S. News, 4/22/20]
Dr. Fauci Deemed A Second Wave Of Coronavirus Infection “Inevitable.” According to The Hill, “Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, reportedly said Wednesday that a second wave of the coronavirus is ‘inevitable’ later this year. ‘If by that time we have put into place all of the countermeasures that you need to address this, we should do reasonably well,’ Fauci told CNN in an interview. ‘If we don’t do that successfully, we could be in for a bad fall and a bad winter.’ The head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said that if states ease restrictions too quickly, the country could see a surge that would ‘get us right back in the same boat that we were a few weeks ago,’ adding that widespread testing is needed to avoid such a path. ‘The truth is that we’re going in the right direction,’ he said. ‘But we need to continue to partner in a very active collaborative way with the states, we need to help them the same way they need to do the execution.’ Fauci also called a second wave of the virus unavoidable on NBC News and Fox News on Tuesday. ‘It’s inevitable that the coronavirus will return next season. ... When it does, how we handle it, will determine our fate,’ Fauci told NBC.” [Hill, 4/28/20]
Trump Claimed Coronavirus Would “Disappear,” And Insisting The US Was Prepared In The Event Of A Resurgence. According to The New York Times, “Mr. Trump argued that the country was better prepared to handle new cases even as doors reopened and that precautions would make a difference. As an example, he said Americans over the age of 60 and especially those with diabetes or heart problems should remain cautious about returning to work or public spaces. ‘This virus is going to disappear,’ he said. ‘It’s a question of when. Will it come back in a small way? Will it come back in a fairly large way? But we know how to deal with it now much better.’ Remaining closed, he added, is not an option. ‘We can’t have our whole country out. We can’t do it. The country won’t take it. It won’t stand it. It’s not sustainable.’” [New York Times, 5/6/20]
Fauci Warned A Rush To Reopen The Country Threatened To Produce New Outbreaks Across The US
While Testifying Before The Senate Dr. Fauci Warned That Opening The Country Too Quickly Could “Trigger An Outbreak That You May Not Be Able To Control.” According to New York Times, “The scientists and public health officials who are leading the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday painted a sobering picture of a country ill-prepared to reopen and contain the spread of the virus in the coming months. At a Senate hearing, the officials cautioned that a vaccine would almost certainly not come in time to protect students for the return to school in the fall, that a recently authorized treatment was not a game-changing advance and that states had to rebuild their depleted public health systems by hiring enough people before they could effectively track the spread of the virus and contain it. The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, warned that if parts of the country reopen too quickly, ‘there is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control, which, in fact, paradoxically, will set you back.’ Dr. Fauci said that approach would lead not only to ‘some suffering and death that could be avoided but could even set you back on the road to try to get economic recovery, because it would almost turn the clock back rather than going forward.’” [New York Times, 5/12/20]
Esper-Authored Leaked Draft Memo Said There Was A “Real Possibility Of A Resurgence Of COVID-19” And Instructed DoD To Prepare For The Event Of A Resurgence. According to a leaked draft memo obtained by Task and Purpose, “The Defense Department should prepare to operate in a "globally-persistent" novel coronavirus (COVID-19) environment without an effective vaccine until "at least the summer of 2021," according to a draft Pentagon memo obtained by Task & Purpose. "We have a long path ahead, with the real possibility of a resurgence of COVID-19," reads the memo, authored for Secretary of Defense Mark Esper but not yet bearing his signature. "Therefore, we must now re-focus our attention on resuming critical missions, increasing levels of activity, and making necessary preparations should a significant resurgence of COVID-19 occur later this year." [Task and Purpose, 5/19/20]
The Number Of Coronavirus Deaths Surpassed The 60,000 Prediction Made By Trump One Week Earlier. According to Huffington Post, “More than 60,000 people in the U.S. have now officially died from the coronavirus, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows. The increasingly grim figure exceeds predictions President Donald Trump made just last week when he sought to frame a maximum of 50,000 to 60,000 total deaths as a win for America and a validation of his administration’s highly criticized pandemic response. ‘We did the right thing because if we didn’t do it, you would have had a million people, a million and a half people, maybe 2 million people dead,’ Trump said. ‘Now, we’re going toward 50, I’m hearing, or 60,000 people.’ ‘One is too many. I always say it: One is too many,’ he continued. ‘But we’re going toward 50- or 60,000 people. That’s at the lower — as you know, the low number was supposed to be 100,000 people. We — we could end up at 50 to 60.’ It’s unclear how Trump arrived at ‘50- or 60,000’ deaths as a plausible upper limit. The U.S. death toll was 42,000 on April 20, the day he made the claim. And the actual number of coronavirus-related deaths, not just the official count recorded in hospitals, is likely far higher.” [Huffington Post, 4/29/20]
Trump Revised The Number Of Coronavirus Deaths Projected, Doubling His Earlier Assertion And Claiming The U.S. Would “Lose Anywhere From 75, 80 To 100,000 People.” According to The New York Times, “On Sunday, Mr. Trump said deaths in the United States could reach 100,000, twice as many as he had forecast two weeks ago. But that new number still underestimates what his own administration is now predicting to be the total death toll by the end of May — much less in the months to come. It follows a pattern for Mr. Trump, who has frequently understated the impact of the disease. ‘We’re going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people,’ he said in a virtual town hall on Fox News on Sunday. ‘That’s a horrible thing. We shouldn’t lose one person over this.’ The White House responded that the new federal government projections had not been vetted. ‘This data is not reflective of any of the modeling done by the task force or data that the task force has analyzed,’ said Judd Deere, a White House spokesman.” [New York Times, 5/4/20]
The Coronavirus Pandemic Killed Over 100,000 Americans Over The Course Of Four Months. According to CNN, “In less than four months, coronavirus has killed more than 100,000 people in the United States. It’s as if every person died in Boca Raton, Florida. Or almost everyone in South Bend, Indiana. When the first coronavirus-related death was reported in February, no one could have fathomed the numbing stream of grim news that followed. Since then, an average of nearly 900 people have perished every day from Covid-19. With social distancing rules keeping families apart, many of the sick died alone in hospital rooms as loved ones were forced to say goodbye through phone screens. Others died at home, too sick or too scared to go to the hospital for coronavirus tests. Their stories never made it to the roster of deaths, which means the tolls could be much higher. Families have lost fathers, mothers, siblings, grandparents and even children. America has lost the best of humanity, with victims including an ER doctor who risked his life trying to save others, a 36-year-old principal who helped grow produce for the needy and a Holocaust survivor who saved families from genocide.” [CNN, 5/28/20]
Over Half Of States That Began To Lift Social Distancing Restrictions Had Increasing Coronavirus Cases Loads, An Increase In Positive Test Results, Or Both. According to The New York Times, “More than half of U.S. states have begun to reopen their economies or plan to do so soon. But most fail to meet criteria recommended by the Trump administration to resume business and social activities. The White House’s guidelines are nonbinding and ultimately leave states’ fates to governors. The criteria suggest that states should have a ‘downward trajectory’ of either documented coronavirus cases or of the percentage of positive tests. Public health experts expressed criticism because ‘downward trajectory’ was not defined and the metrics do not specify a threshold for case numbers or positive rates. Still, most states that are reopening fail to adhere to even those recommendations: In more than half of states easing restrictions, case counts are trending upward, positive test results are rising, or both, raising concerns among public health experts.” [New York Times, 5/8/20]
White House Pandemic Task Force Report Showed Infection Rate Spikes Of 72% Or Greater Over A Seven Day Period In Nashville, Des Moines, Amarillo, And Central City, KY. According to NBC News, “Coronavirus infection rates are spiking to new highs in several metropolitan areas and smaller communities across the country, according to undisclosed data the White House's pandemic task force is using to track rates of infection, which was obtained by NBC News. The data in a May 7 coronavirus task force report are at odds with President Donald Trump's declaration Monday that "all throughout the country, the numbers are coming down rapidly. The 10 top areas recorded surges of 72.4 percent or greater over a seven-day period compared to the previous week, according to a set of tables produced for the task force by its data and analytics unit. They include Nashville, Tennessee; Des Moines, Iowa; Amarillo, Texas; and — atop the list, with a 650 percent increase — Central City, Kentucky." [NBC News, 5/11/20]
Study Complied By The Policy Lab At Children’s Hospital Of Philadelphia Showed A Significant Risk Of Resurgence In The Virus In Southern States. According to The Daily Beast, “A new analysis being reviewed by the White House shows southern states that moved too quickly to relax social distancing guidelines face significant risk for a resurgence of the coronavirus over the next several weeks. In several cases, counties will see hundreds of additional cases by June 17. The study, which was put together by PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, is part of a data set being reviewed by top coronavirus task force officials and people working with the team, The Daily Beast reported earlier this month. A previous model by the PolicyLab predicted that if officials moved too quickly and too aggressively to reopen in mid-May, individual counties could witness hundreds, if not a thousand-plus, more coronavirus cases reported each day by August 1. The new model shows that in southern counties, particularly in Texas, Florida, Alabama, and Virginia, the risk for resurgence is high over the next four weeks. These states have moved to reopen, at least partially, since the team published its last model in April.” [Daily Beast, 5/20/20]
Trump Pushed For Schools To Reopen In The Fall By Threatening To Withhold Federal Funds. According to Politico, “The American Academy of Pediatrics is joining teachers unions and school superintendents in blasting Trump administration threats to withhold federal funds from schools that do not fully reopen, splitting with the president even as he tweeted again on Friday that schools "must be open in the Fall.” [Politico, 7/10/17]
Leaked Non-Public Federal Materials For Reopening Schools Said Schools And Universities Were The “Highest Risk” For Coronavirus Spread. According to the New York Times, “Federal materials for reopening schools, shared the week President Trump demanded weaker guidelines to do so, said fully reopening schools and universities remained the “highest risk” for the spread of the coronavirus. The 69-page document, obtained by The New York Times and marked “For Internal Use Only,” was intended for federal public health response teams to have as they are deployed to hot spots around the country. But it appears to have circulated the same week that Vice President Mike Pence announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would release new guidelines, saying that the administration did not want them to be “too tough.” It is unclear whether Mr. Trump saw the document, nor is it clear how much of it will survive once new guidance is completed.” [NYT, 7/10/20]
DeVos Abandoned Her Stance On Local Educational Control In Favor Of Supporting Trump’s Call For Public Schools To Reopen In The Fall. According to The New York Times, “As the nation’s public schools plunged into crisis at the outset of the coronavirus outbreak, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos stuck to the message of decades of conservative education advocacy. She championed her trademark policies of local and parental control, freeing states of federal mandates, loosening rules and funding opportunities that she said would help schools ‘rethink education’ outside their brick-and-mortar buildings. But now, as President Trump pushes public schools to reopen this fall, Ms. DeVos is demanding they do as Washington says, a stance diametrically opposite to how she has led the department. Already a partisan lightning rod, she has become the face of the Trump administration’s efforts to pry open the schoolhouse doors through force and threats. Her presence, as arguably the most recognizable and divisive member of the administration next to Mr. Trump himself, has inflamed a debate that is roiling communities in every corner of the country.” [New York Times, 7/13/20]
The Department Of Education Defended DeVos’ Stance On Reopening Schools During The Pandemic By Stating, “Its Safe And Better For Kid’s Overall Health To Be Back In School.” According to The New York Times, “In a statement, the department defended Ms. DeVos’s push, saying that ‘if anyone is politicizing this issue it’s the unions, who are Democrats’ operatives, who are fear-mongering and denying the science that says it’s safe and better for kids’ overall health to be back in school.’ She’s not providing a federal mandate on how schools should open; she’s just asking local education leaders to fulfill their basic obligation, which is to educate America’s students full time,’ the statement said. ‘We know what’s best for kids — and that’s having their schools and all the services they provide fully operational in the fall.’” [New York Times, 7/13/20]
Pence Asserted That CDC Warnings Should Not Preclude Schools From Reopening. According to 4WWL, “‘My analysis of this on the public health scale is way in favor of reopening schools face to face and these kids can get the education they deserve,’ he said. But the CDC’s guidelines for schools to consider encourage teachers and students to stay home when possible, mitigating the contact between students and teachers who might be at a higher risk from COVID-19. Pence was blunt Tuesday in dismissing those guidelines in favor of a quick reopening. ‘To be very clear, we don’t want CDC guidance to be a reason why people don’t reopen their schools,’ he said.” [4WWL, 7/14/20]
Kayleigh McEnany Said That “Science Should Not Stand In The Way” Of Schools Reopening. According to NBC News, “White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said during a Thursday press briefing that "science should not stand in the way of" schools fully reopening for the upcoming academic year, later blasting coverage of her comments as a "case study in media bias." Asked about President Donald Trump's message to parents as some schools opt to go fully online in the coming weeks, McEnany said "the president has said unmistakably that he wants schools to open." "And I was just in the Oval talking to him about that," she said. "When he says open, he means open in full, kids being able to attend each and every day in their school. The science should not stand in the way of this.” [NBC, 7/17/20]
Trump Reiterated False Claim That Children Were Essentially Immune To Coronavirus. According to the Washington Post, “Despite a study that found nearly 100,000 children were infected with the coronavirus in the final two weeks of July, President Trump on Monday reiterated the false claim that children are essentially immune to the virus, and that schools should reopen for in-person instruction in the fall. “I think, for the most part, they don’t get very sick,” Trump said of children. “... It’s also a case where there’s a tiny fraction of death, tiny fraction, and they get better very quickly.” [WaPo, 8/10/20]
September 2020: The CDC Confirmed Children Could And Have Transmitted The Virus To Their Family Members. According to Axios, “Children can and do transmit the coronavirus to members of their household, a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms. Why it matters: As the coronavirus spreads through schools across the country, the people who live with exposed children — some of whom may be older or have preexisting conditions — are also at risk of catching the virus. Details: The study looked at coronavirus outbreaks associated with three child care facilities in Utah. It found that 12 children acquired the virus in these facilities, and then transmitted it to at least 12 of their non-facility contacts — about a quarter of such contacts. One parent was hospitalized, and two asymptomatic children transmitted the virus. The bottom line: If you are a parent or a grandparent who is sending their child to school, and there is a coronavirus outbreak at that school, you are also at risk of catching the virus. That is a terrible predicament for millions of caregivers across the country, especially those who are vulnerable.” [Axios, 09/14/20]
After Trump Claimed The CDC Guidance Was “Too Tough,” The CDC Delayed The Release Of Its Guidance For School Reopening. According to NPR, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will not release a set of documents this week aimed at giving schools advice on how to reopen to students after coronavirus shutdowns, NPR has learned. Instead, the full set will be published before the end of the month, a CDC spokesperson says. ‘These science and evidence-based resources and tools will provide additional information for administrators, teachers and staff, parents, caregivers and guardians, as together we work towards the public health-oriented goal of safely opening schools this fall,’ the spokesperson said. President Trump has emphasized that he wants to see schools reopen their classrooms in the fall, but many teachers and parents have balked, concerned that children would spread the virus and get sick themselves. Trump complained on Twitter that the CDC's existing guidance was ‘too tough.’” [NPR, 07/16/20]
August 2020: By Designating Teachers “Critical Infrastructure Workers,” Trump Exempted Them From Quarantine Requirements Following Coronavirus Exposure. According to The Associated Press, “New guidance from President Donald Trump’s administration that declares teachers to be ‘critical infrastructure workers’ could give the green light to exempting teachers from quarantine requirements after being exposed to COVID-19 and instead send them back into the classroom. Keeping teachers without symptoms in the classroom, as a handful of school districts in Tennessee and Georgia have already said they may do, raises the risk that they will spread the respiratory illness to students and fellow employees. Multiple teachers can be required by public health agencies to quarantine for 14 days during an outbreak, which can stretch a district’s ability to keep providing in-person instruction. South Carolina health officials also describe teachers as critical infrastructure workers, although it’s unclear if any district there is asking teachers to return before 14 days. Among the first districts to name teachers as critical infrastructure workers was eastern Tennessee’s Greene County, where the school board gave the designation to teachers July 13. ‘It essentially means if we are exposed and we know we might potentially be positive, we still have to come to school and we might at that point be carriers and spreaders,’ said Hillary Buckner, who teaches Spanish at Chuckey-Doak High School in Afton.” [Associated Press, 08/20/20]
August, 2020: Etowah High School Opened Then Closed A Week Later With 900 In Quarantine. According to the Washington Post, “On the first day of school at Etowah High School in Georgia on Aug. 3, dozens of seniors packed together to pose side-by-side for a photo. Not a single smile was covered with a mask. Now, just over a week later, the students all have been sent home and the school is shut. In all, more than 900 students and staff in the Cherokee County School District have been ordered to quarantine as of Tuesday morning after 59 students and staff tested positive for covid-19, according to school officials. A third of those quarantined are from Etowah High School, which has had 14 confirmed cases.” [Washington Post, 8/12/20]
Schools In Livingston Parish, LA And Muncie, IN Opened Then Closed. According to the Washington Post, “The outbreak in Cherokee County is the most severe yet among schools that have already reopened, but it is far from the only district where the novel coronavirus has derailed in-person classes. In Livingston Parish, La., more than 140 students have been quarantined as of Tuesday after 17 employees and an unidentified number of students tested positive for covid-19. Officials at a middle school and high school in Muncie, Ind., said Tuesday they are shutting down for two weeks after sending more than 200 students home to self-isolate.” [Washington Post, 8/12/20]
September 2020: The Department Of Education Rejected A Request By Senate Democrats To Track Cases At Educational Institutions. According to Politico “Last month, a group of Senate Democrats pressed the Trump administration to start tracking outbreaks at colleges, warning that the lack of federal guidance on reporting coronavirus infections among students was "likely to create a patchwork of inconsistent information across states." They wanted an answer by Sept. 2 but haven’t received a reply. The federal Education Department said it does not plan to track school or college cases or outbreaks.” [Politico, 09/10/20]
Neither Trump Nor DeVos Encouraged Federal Rules For Tracking Or Reporting Coronavirus Cases At Schools Or Colleges. According to Politico, “The data on how coronavirus is spreading at schools and colleges is inconsistent, erratic — and sometimes purposely kept out of the public’s reach. Federal rules don’t specifically require tracking or reporting the numbers by school or college, despite pressure from President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to open schools and colleges for in-person classes. The result is a distorted picture of how and where the virus may be spreading, not just for parents, teachers, students and professors, but the cities and towns where campuses are located.” [Politico, 09/10/20]
Study: College Reopening Drove About 3,000 Additional Cases Per Day. According to Kaiser Health News, “Reopening colleges drove a coronavirus surge of about 3,000 new cases a day in the United States, according to a draft study released Tuesday. The study, done jointly by researchers at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Indiana University, the University of Washington and Davidson College, tracked cellphone data and matched it to reopening schedules at 1,400 schools, along with county infection rates. ‘Our study was looking to see whether we could observe increases both in movement and in case count — so case reports in counties and all over the U.S.,’ said Ana Bento, an infectious disease expert and assistant professor at Indiana University’s School of Public Health. ‘Then we tried to understand if these were different in counties where, of course, there were universities or colleges, and particularly, to see if these increases were larger in magnitude in colleges with face-to-face instruction primarily,’ she said. Nearly 900 of those schools opened primarily with in-person classes, according to the draft study. The research examines the period from July 15 to Sept. 13. It does not name specific institutions or locations, but researchers found a correlation between schools that attempted in-person instruction and greater disease transmission rates.” [Kaiser Health News, 09/23/20]
September 2020: FEMA Announced They Would Stop Paying For Masks For Schools. According to NPR, “The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it will no longer pay for some safety measures related to COVID-19 that it had previously covered. Keith Turi, FEMA assistant administrator for recovery, announced the changes during a call Tuesday with state and tribal emergency managers, many of whom expressed concerns about the new policy. Under the new guidance, FEMA will generally not reimburse states for the costs of cloth face coverings or personal protective equipment in nonemergency settings, including schools, public housing and courthouses. The policy goes into effect on Sept. 15. The changes narrow what constitutes an ‘emergency protective measure’ and is thus eligible for FEMA's Public Assistance Program. A recording of the call was provided to NPR by a government official responsible for emergency funding. The official is not authorized to speak to the media and is concerned about a possible job loss for doing so. Going forward, Turi explained, cloth face masks and personal protective equipment in nonemergency settings will be classified as ‘increased operating costs’ for public services and will not be covered by the fund.” [NPR, 09/01/20]
Trump’s FCC Chairman, And Every Republican On The Commission, Refused To Allow Funding For Internet Service At Schools To Be Used To Help Students Learning Remotely. According to The Washington Post, “A long-standing program run by the Federal Communications Commission that subsidizes Internet service for schools and libraries is of little help to students during the pandemic. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told schools they can use the funding only for Internet service at their campuses — even when schools have been shut down. Pai has said that the law does not allow the money to be used for providing domestic Internet service and that he does not have the authority to do otherwise. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, the sole Democrat on the panel, disagrees — as do congressional Democrats and school leaders across the country. She accused the commission of failing to act to address what she called ‘a national crisis.’” [Washington Post, 08/16/20]
Several Of The Policy Announcements Trump Shared During Trump’s Oval Office Address On Coronavirus Were Contradicted By The Department Of Homeland Security. According to Politico, “Following Donald Trump’s Oval Office address on the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak, the Washington Post had a report with a striking sentence: ‘Although he read from a prepared script as he delivered a rare prime-time televised address to the nation from the Oval Office, Trump incorrectly described his own policy.’ That, unfortunately, is an accurate description of what transpired. The president said, for example, ‘To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days.’ That’s not necessarily wise -- even Trump’s own former homeland security advisor has said this won’t make much of a difference -- and given the wide number of exceptions, what the Republican said wasn’t even an accurate description of the policy.” [Politico, 3/11/20]
In Oval Office Address, Donald Trump Announced 30 Day Ban On “All Travel From Europe To The United States” With “Exemptions For Americans Who Have Undergone Appropriate Screenings.” According to the New York Times’ transcript of Donald Trump’s Oval Office Address, “After consulting with our top government health professionals, I have decided to take several strong but necessary actions to protect the health and well being of all Americans. To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days. The new rules will go into effect Friday at midnight. These restrictions will be adjusted subject to conditions on the ground. There will be exemptions for Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings, and these prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things as we get approval. Anything coming from Europe to the United States is what we are discussing. These restrictions will also not apply to the United Kingdom.” [NYT, 3/11/20]
As Trump Finished Oval Office Address, DHS Clarified Trump Travel Ban Would Not Bar All Travelers, Just Foreign Nationals. According to Politico, “And his speech did still generate some confusion. After Trump finished his remarks, the Department of Homeland Security clarified that the new order would not bar all travelers from Europe, just foreign nationals traveling from Europe to the U.S. The order also doesn't prohibit the travel of legal permanent residents and the immediate family members of U.S. citizens. The guidance does apply, however, to people transporting cargo from Europe, the White House told POLITICO. Still, goods and cargo will be permitted to enter the U.S., another statement that needed clarification after Trump was finished.” [Politico, 3/11/20]
Trump Announced Restrictions On Trade And Cargo Between U.S. And Europe In Oval Office Address. According to the New York Times’ transcript of Donald Trump’s Oval Office Address, “To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days. The new rules will go into effect Friday at midnight. These restrictions will be adjusted subject to conditions on the ground. There will be exemptions for Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings, and these prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things as we get approval. Anything coming from Europe to the United States is what we are discussing. These restrictions will also not apply to the United Kingdom.” [NYT, 3/11/20]
Trump Travel Restrictions Did Not Apply To Cargo And Trade. According to Buzzfeed News, “2. The European travel restrictions actually DO NOT apply to cargo. […] The presidential proclamation doesn't mention anything about trade restrictions. In the proclamation, Trump says, "The free flow of commerce between the United States and the [affected European countries] remains an economic priority for the United States, and I remain committed to facilitating trade between our nations." After finishing his speech, Trump walked back his comment on trade, saying that it would not be affected by the restrictions.” [Buzzfeed News, 3/12/20]
Trump Announced Health Insurance Industry Leaders Agreed To Wave Co-Payments For Coronavirus Treatment. According to Buzzfeed News, “Earlier this week, I met with the leaders of health insurance industry who have agreed to waive all co-payments for coronavirus treatments, extend insurance coverage to these treatments, and to prevent surprise medical billing.” [NYT, 3/11/20]
Insurance Companies Waived Copayments For Testing, Not Treatment. According to Buzzfeed News, “3. Insurance companies are waiving copayments for COVID-19 testing, NOT treatment […] That's not true. Following Trump's speech, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), a major health insurance lobby, clarified that they would only be waiving costs for tests, not treatment, and referred Americans to their previous statements on their planned actions to combat the virus's spread. In a press release Mar. 6, AHIP's board of directors said that insurance providers "will cover needed diagnostic testing when ordered by a physician." When it comes to treatment, however, they said that providers will "take action to ease network, referral, and prior authorization requirements and/or waive patient cost sharing." In other words, they are not removing costs all together.” [Buzzfeed News, 3/12/20]
March 13, 2020: Trump Claimed That Google Would Create A Website For Americans To Figure Out If They Needed A Test. According to Wired, “President Donald Trump announced Friday that the US government’s coronavirus testing apparatus, which has lagged badly behind other developed nations, would soon get an assist from Google. The search and advertising giant will create a website, Trump said, that would help Americans figure out if they need a test for the virus, and if so where they can find one.” [Wired, 3/13/20]
Trump’s Claim Proved False; Google Had No Idea Trump Planned To Mention A Site. According to Wired, “The only problem: There is no nationwide site like the one Trump described. And Google had no idea the president was going to mention one. A source at Google tells WIRED that company leadership was surprised that Trump announced anything about the initiative at the press conference. What he did say was also almost entirely wrong. There will be a coronavirus testing site, not from Google but from Alphabet sister company Verily. ‘We are developing a tool to help triage individuals for Covid-19 testing,’ Google tweeted in a statement. ‘Verily is in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time.’ Even that, though, was not the original plan. The Verge reported Friday afternoon that Verily had intended the site for health care workers only. After Trump unexpectedly publicized the effort, Verily decided it will let anyone visit it, but can still only provide people with testing site information in the San Francisco area.” [Wired, 3/13/20]
March 15, 2020: Google-Affiliate Verily Launched Website Function For Areas Of The Bay Area. According to Axios, “Flashback: It was a week ago that President Trump said Google was building a national website where people could enter their symptoms, find out if they needed a test and be directed to one. However, it turned out that the effort actually under way, being done by sister company Verily, was still under development and only in the testing phase. After Trump's initial announcement, Google said it would build a national informational site in addition to the one Verily was building, with more general information. That site was originally slated to be ready by Monday, but at that time Google said it was being delayed until later in the week. Verily's site, meanwhile, rolled out in limited form last Sunday and offers a detailed symptom checker and local testing resources, but only for the Bay Area.” [Axios, 3/21/20]
March 21, 2020: Google Launched National Website With General Information. According to Axios, “Flashback: It was a week ago that President Trump said Google was building a national website where people could enter their symptoms, find out if they needed a test and be directed to one. However, it turned out that the effort actually under way, being done by sister company Verily, was still under development and only in the testing phase. After Trump's initial announcement, Google said it would build a national informational site in addition to the one Verily was building, with more general information. That site was originally slated to be ready by Monday, but at that time Google said it was being delayed until later in the week. Verily's site, meanwhile, rolled out in limited form last Sunday and offers a detailed symptom checker and local testing resources, but only for the Bay Area.” [Axios, 3/21/20]
Kushner Urged Trump To Go Ahead With The Europe Travel Ban, And Sold Trump On The Website Concept. According to the New York Times, “Mr. Kushner’s influence was immediately felt. He urged his father-in-law to go ahead with a ban on some travel from Europe and to declare a national emergency, after Mr. Trump had dithered and second-guessed himself for agreeing to it. He got executives at several pharmaceutical corporations to agree to help with mobilized testing efforts, and has pushed for an increase in medical supplies to hospitals. But after Mr. Trump delivered an error-ridden Oval Office address last week, the president followed it with an appearance Friday in the Rose Garden in which he said Google had developed a coronavirus testing website that did not exist. Mr. Kushner was deeply involved in both efforts, and had sold his father-in-law on the website as a smart concept.” [New York Times, 3/16/20]
A Health Insurance Company With Ties To Jared Kushner Developed A Website To Direct People To Coronavirus Testing Sites At The Government’s Request. According to the Atlantic, “On March 13, President Donald Trump promised Americans they would soon be able to access a new website that would ask them about their symptoms and direct them to nearby coronavirus testing sites. He said Google was helping. That wasn’t true. But in the following days, Oscar Health—a health-insurance company closely connected to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner—developed a government website with the features the president had described. A team of Oscar engineers, project managers, and executives spent about five days building a stand-alone website at the government’s request, an Oscar spokesperson told The Atlantic. The company even dispatched two employees from New York to meet in person with federal officials in Washington, D.C., the spokesperson said. Then the website was suddenly and mysteriously scrapped.” [Atlantic, 3/30/10]
Jared’s Brother Joshua Was A Co-Founder And Major Investor, And Jared Partially Owned Or Controlled Oscar Before He Joined The White House. According to the Atlantic, “The full extent of Oscar’s work on the project has not been previously reported. The partnership between the administration and the firm suggests that Kushner may have mingled his family’s business interests with his political interests and his role in the administration’s coronavirus response. Kushner’s younger brother Joshua is a co-founder and major investor in Oscar, and Jared Kushner partially owned or controlled Oscar before he joined the White House. The company’s work on the coronavirus website could violate federal ethics laws, several experts said.” [Atlantic, 3/30/10]
March 19, 2020: Trump Claimed The FDA Had Approved Chloroquine To Treat Covid-19. According to CNN, “President Donald Trump claimed during a White House briefing on Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration had approved the "very powerful" drug chloroquine to treat coronavirus. Chloroquine is used to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. "It's shown very encouraging -- very, very encouraging early results. And we're going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately. And that's where the FDA has been so great. They -- they've gone through the approval process; it's been approved. And they did it -- they took it down from many, many months to immediate. So we're going to be able to make that drug available by prescription or states," Trump said. He added: "Normally the FDA would take a long time to approve something like that, and it's -- it was approved very, very quickly and it's now approved, by prescription.” [CNN, 3/19/20]
After Trump’s Press Conference, FDA Said Chloroquine Had Not Been Approved For Covid-19. According to CNN, “Facts First: Chloroquine has not been approved by the FDA to treat the coronavirus -- and nor has any other drug, the FDA made clear in a post-briefing statement that said "there are no FDA-approved therapeutics or drugs to treat, cure or prevent COVID-19." Because chloroquine has been approved for other purposes, doctors are legally allowed to prescribe it for the unapproved or "off-label" use of treating the coronavirus if they want. But its safety and effectiveness has not been proven with regard to the coronavirus. FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn, speaking after Trump at the briefing, said that chloroquine would be tested through a "large, pragmatic clinical trial" with coronavirus patients.” [CNN, 3/19/20]
There Was Little Evidence That The Drugs Had Any Positive Impact On Coronavirus Patients. According to Politico, “Health policy experts warn that while the drugs showed early promise in France, a just-released Chinese study suggested no effect at all, and far more data is needed before themedicines become the go-to treatment in a pandemic. Trump’s own health officials have preached caution and tried to temper his expectations for the drugs as a cure-all, sometimes even on stage with him at daily briefings.” [Politico, 3/27/20]
Trump Urged Americans To “Take It [Chloroquine], What Do You Have To Lose?” According to The Guardian, “In White House briefings on Saturday and Sunday, Trump urged Americans worried about the virus to try hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to treat malaria, arthritis and lupus that has not been extensively tested for other conditions. ‘Take it. What do you have to lose?’ the president said on Saturday, suggesting that he might do so himself after asking ‘my doctors’.” [Guardian, 4/6/20]
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Prior To Trump’s Announcement Promoting Hydroxychloroquine Trump Administration Officials Already Planned A Nation Wide Drug Circulation Campaign. According to Vanity Fair, “Even before Trump began making public statements from the podium, his political appointees had begun rallying around the idea of amassing chloroquine drugs to treat COVID-19, despite the paucity of evidence for their benefits. On March 18, according to records obtained by Vanity Fair, the German drug manufacturer Bayer first petitioned the FDA to let it donate millions of doses of a chloroquine drug called Resochin. Normally such a move would be prohibited since the FDA had never inspected the plant in Karachi, Pakistan, where Resochin is made. But the FDA set aside its usual safeguards and approved the donation. On March 19, Bayer issued a press release to announce that it was ‘working with appropriate agencies on an Emergency Use Authorization for the drug’s use in the U.S.’ The next day Trump first spoke of hydroxychloroquine from the White House podium, citing its ‘very, very encouraging early results. And we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately.’ Because the drug had ‘been around for a long time,’ he added, ‘if things don’t go as planned, it’s not going to kill anybody.’ Trump said he had spoken the night before with New York governor Andrew Cuomo about the drug’s promise, and ‘he wants to be first on line.’” [Vanity Fair, 4/24/20]
Trump’s Endorsement of Hydroxychloroquine To Treat COVID-19 Caused A Run On The Drug. According to ProPublica, “Trump’s push to use hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 has triggered a run on the drug. Healthy people are stocking up just in case they come down with the disease. That has left lupus patients like Valdez and those with rheumatoid arthritis suddenly confronting a lack of medication that safeguards them, and not only from the effects of those conditions. If they were required to take stronger drugs to suppress their immune systems, it could render them susceptible to more serious consequences should they get COVID-19.” [ProPublica, 3/22/20]
Lupus Patients Faced A Shortage The Critical Drug Hydroxychloroquine Following Trump’s Baseless Claims That The Drug May Be Used Treatment For COVID-19. According to ProPublica, “The drug Plaquenil keeps Anna Valdez’s lupus in check. Late last week, as she sheltered in place at her home outside Santa Rosa, California, Valdez called her local pharmacy and ordered a refill to treat her autoimmune disorder, thinking a 90-day supply would help her ride out the coronavirus outbreak. But the pharmacy told her it had only 10 pills left. Valdez called other pharmacies. They, too, had run out. Valdez and lupus patients around the country have learned in recent days that an extraordinary force has upended the supply chain they all rely on: President Donald Trump. These days, Plaquenil is better known by its generic name, hydroxychloroquine. It is the medication Trump has been hyping as a potential treatment for the novel coronavirus, even though it is not approved for this use and there is scant medical evidence so far that it works to treat the virus.” [ProPublica, 3/22/20]
Following Trump’s Repeated Promotion Of Hydroxychloroquine, India Banned All Export Of The Drug To Curb International Stockpiling Effectively Cutting Off 50% Of The US Supply Of The Drug. According to Bloomberg, “Nearly half the supply of hydroxychloroquine to the U.S. comes from makers in India, a flow that has now been abruptly stanched after the Asian nation banned exports of all forms of the malaria drug touted by President Donald Trump as a ‘game changer’ for treating the coronavirus. According to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence, 47% of the U.S. supply of the drug last year came from India makers. Only a handful of suppliers in the top 10 are non-Indian, such as Actavis, now a subsidiary of Israeli generics giant Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. It’s likely that some of their production facilities are nevertheless located in India, the biggest maker of generic drugs in the world. India’s export ban on the drug is aimed at ensuring it has enough supply for domestic use after the American president’s endorsement sparked global stockpiling of the medication.” [Bloomberg, 4/6/20]
Despite A Lack Of Evidence Supporting The Treatment, Trump’s Endorsement Of Azithromycin Tablets To Combat COVID-19 Led To A Nationwide Shortage Of The Drug. According to The Hill, “A commonly prescribed antibiotic used to treat sexually transmitted infections and other conditions is facing a shortage after President Trump promoted it as a potential coronavirus treatment. Demand for azithromycin tablets — better known by its brand name Z-Pack — is soaring as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise in the U.S. Nine drug manufacturers are reporting shortages of azithromycin to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with several citing increased demand. Demand is highest in New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., with more than 222,000 confirmed cases, said Paula Gurz, senior director of pharmacy for Premier, a health care services company. ‘This is likely a result of COVID-19, with this product being talked about in combination with Hydroxychloriquine as a treatment,’ Gurz said. Some doctors are using azithromycin combined with hydroxychloriquine — an anti-malarial medication — to treat COVID-19 after the FDA loosened restrictions on how the drugs can be used. There is limited evidence about whether the two drugs are an effective treatment for COVID-19, but clinical trials are underway in the U.S. and other countries” [Hill, 4/16/20]
After Trump Endorsed The Use Of Chloroquine To Treat COVID-19, An Arizona Couple Attempted To Self-Medicate With A Drug That Contained Chloroquine Resulting In Both Their Hospitalization And The Man’s Eventual Death. According to BuzzFeed News, “A man died and his wife needed critical care after they both took a drug meant for aquariums that contains chloroquine, a drug President Trump recently touted as a treatment for COVID-19 in spite of a lack of study by health officials or approval by the World Health Organization. According to the Banner Health hospital system in Phoenix, the couple, both in their sixties, ingested chloroquine phosphate, ‘an additive commonly used at aquariums to clean fish tanks.’ One aquarium supply store online described it as a ‘wonder drug’ that was once only available through veterinarians — for saltwater fish, not humans. The site is currently sold out of the drug. Thirty minutes after taking the chloroquine phosphate, the couple experienced serious, immediate effects that required them to go to the hospital.” [BuzzFeed News, 3/24/20]
The Widow Of The Deceased Made A Statement Citing Trump’s Televised Press Briefing And Fear Of Contracting The Disease As The Couple’s Motivation For Ingesting The Drug. According to NBC News, “The man’s wife told NBC News she’d watched televised briefings during which President Trump talked about the potential benefits of chloroquine. Even though no drugs are approved to prevent or treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, some early research suggests it may be useful as a therapy. The name ‘chloroquine’ resonated with the man’s wife, who asked that her name not be used to protect the family’s privacy. She’d used it previously to treat her koi fish. ‘I saw it sitting on the back shelf and thought, ‘Hey, isn’t that the stuff they’re talking about on TV?’ The couple — both in their 60s and potentially at higher risk for complications of the virus — decided to mix a small amount of the substance with a liquid and drink it as a way to prevent the coronavirus. ‘We were afraid of getting sick,’ she said. Within 20 minutes, both became extremely ill, at first feeling ‘dizzy and hot.’” [NBC News, 3/23/20]
Trump Claimed, “You’re Not Gonna Die From This Pill” In Support Of Using Hydroxycholoroquine To Treat COVID-19, Even As Medical Experts Warned About Rare But Potentially Fatal Side Effects Of The Drug. According to NBC News, “As the U.S. scales up purchase and use of the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients, a leading Mayo Clinic cardiologist is sounding a warning: Anyone promoting the drug also needs to flag its rare but serious — and potentially fatal — side effects. President Donald Trump has repeatedly touted the potential benefits of hydroxychloroquine, which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat malaria, lupus and other autoimmune ailments but hasn’t yet been proven effective and safe in treating the coronavirus. ‘What do you have to lose?’ Trump asked Saturday at the White House when pressed by reporters about hydroxychloroquine’s effectiveness. And while he’s suggested that patients consult with their physicians about the treatment, he’s also said the drug can ‘help them, but it’s not going to hurt them.’ On Tuesday, when asked about the drug’s potential side effects, he downplayed them. ‘The side effects are the least of it,’ said Trump. ‘You’re not gonna die from this pill,’ he said. ‘I say ‘try it’ he said, noting ‘I’m not a doctor’ and to get a physician’s approval. But the president’s reassurance is raising concerns among experts about the dangers the drug poses to some.” [NBC News, 4/7/20]
Fauci Contradicted Trump’s Claims On Chloroquine Saying, “In Terms Of Science, I Don’t Think We Can Definitively Say It Works” And “The Data Are Really Just At Best Suggestive.” According to the Guardian, “In White House briefings on Saturday and Sunday, Trump urged Americans worried about the virus to try hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to treat malaria, arthritis and lupus that has not been extensively tested for other conditions. “Take it. What do you have to lose?” Trump said on Saturday, suggesting he might do so himself after asking “my doctors”. On Sunday, Trump said America doesn’t have time “to take a couple years” to test the efficacy of the drug in treating Covid-19. But Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top doctor on infectious diseases and a key member of the White House task force, was adamant there was nothing to suggest the medicine had any benefit against coronavirus. “In terms of science, I don’t think we can definitively say it works,” he told CBS’s Face the Nation. “The data are really just at best suggestive. There have been cases that show there may be an effect and there are others to show there’s no effect.” [Guardian, 4/5/20]
Following Fauci’s Repeated Assertions That There Was No “Definitive Proof” Supporting Chloroquine’s Effectiveness To Treat COVID-19, Trump Tweeted The Exact Opposite. According to BuzzFeed News, “Fauci later went on Fox News to emphasize that there is no ‘definitive proof’ the drug is effective. But on Saturday, the president heralded the drug’s promise again, tweeting that coupling chloroquine with the antibiotic azithromycin has ‘a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine.’” [BuzzFeed News, 3/24/20]
Trump’s All-Out Push To Advance Unproven Coronavirus Treatments Deepened A Divide Between The White House And Career Health Officials. According to Politico, “President Donald Trump’s all-out push to advance unproven coronavirus treatments is deepening a divide between the White House and career health officials, who are being pulled away from other potential projects to address the president’s hunchthat decades-old malaria medicines can be coronavirus cures.
The White House directed health officials to set up a project to track if the antimalarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine show promise — a dayslong effort that distracted from urgent tasks like trials of other medicines thought to have more potential against the virus. Food and Drug Administration officials also reversed a nearly six-year ban on a troubled Indian manufacturer in a bid to secure the drugs, and top advisers to Trump have encouraged other agencies to locate as much of the product as possible. The White House is also pressuring Medicare officialsto pay for unproven treatments being given to desperate patients during a pandemic.” [Politico, 3/27/20]
Despite Scant Evidence Of Chloroquine’s Efficacy Against Coronavirus, The White House Pulled FDA, NIH, And CMS Into A Project To Develop A Database Tracking Chloroquine’s Use Against Coronavirus. According to Politico, “Now, according to Agus and HHS officials, the White House has pulled multiple health agencies — including the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — into a project to develop a database tracking the drugs’ use against the coronavirus, despite scant evidence that they are effective. The White House is having second thoughts about working with Oracle on the project after a New York Times article this week raised questions about the partnership, said two HHS officials.” [Politico, 3/27/20]
The White House Ordered CMS To Explore How To Reimburse Doctors For Prescribing Chloroquine, A Then-Unapproved Therapy. According to Politico, “The White House also has ordered CMS, which oversees Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, to explore how to reimburse doctors for prescribing chloroquine to patients searching for a coronavirus treatment, said two officials with knowledge of the agency's strategy. The prospect of CMS payments to doctors for handing out unproven treatments raises immediate ethical questions, say bioethicists and health officials. ‘They’re basically creating a perverse incentive for physicians to use an unapproved therapy,’ said one official.” [Politico, 3/27/20]
The White House Directed FEMA To Locate As Much Chloroquine As Possible, Shifting Resources Within The Federal Coronavirus Response. According to Politico, “The White House has also directed FEMA to locate as much of the drugs as possible, pulling officials away from the agency’s ongoing effort to lead the federal coronavirus response, said two people with knowledge of the agency’s planning.” [Politico, 3/27/20]
March 21, 2020: The FDA Significantly Dropped Regulatory Standards, Bypassing Inspection And Approval Of Foreign Drug Manufacturers To Secure Rapidly Depleting Stores Of Chloroquine. According to Reuters, “On March 21, two days after President Donald Trump first touted chloroquine drugs as a ‘gamechanger’ in the fight against COVID-19, administration officials privately described what they felt was a ‘win’ in the president’s efforts to build an emergency stockpile of the drugs: a hefty donation of pills from Bayer AG. BayGn.DEIn an exchange of enthusiastic emails among federal health officials reviewed by Reuters, Keagan Lenihan, chief of staff of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), cautioned that ‘3-4 days’ of testing would be needed. ‘Potentially serious issues with product so let’s be careful when we take that win,’ she wrote. Bayer has since donated three million tablets of the drug, called Resochin, to the U.S. national stockpile for treatment of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. After a brief period of testing, its use in the United States was approved on an emergency basis. But three U.S. government sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that there is reason to be concerned about the quality of Resochin and its makers, located in India and Pakistan. Although some rules can be waived in an emergency, the FDA dropped its quality-control standards too far as it scoured the world for scarce supplies of chloroquine drugs, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The plants that make Resochin ingredients and finished doses in India and Pakistan have never been registered with, or inspected by, the FDA, according to the three government sources, as well as FDA documents compiled in the private online database FDAzilla.com. Some chloroquine drugs were already approved by the FDA before the pandemic as antimalarial medications, a process that required plant inspections. Resochin was not approved.” [Reuters, 4/16/20]
March 28, 2020: FDA Granted Emergency Approval To Hydroxychloroquine And Chloroquine Despite Anecdotal Evidence.According to the Washington Post, “The Food and Drug Administration has given emergency approval to a Trump administration plan to distribute millions of doses of anti-malarial drugs to hospitals across the country, saying it is worth the risk of trying unproven treatments to slow the progression of the disease in seriously ill coronavirus patients. There have only been a few, very small anecdotal studies that show a possible benefit of the drugs, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, to relieve the acute respiratory symptoms of Covid-19 and clear the virus from infected patients. […] With no established treatments available, the FDA said in an approval letter dated Saturday that, essentially, trying the anti-malarial drugs was worth a shot. It cited the actions of other countries to adopt the drugs as a coronavirus treatment and the limited laboratory tests and clinical experience that may show benefit.” [WaPo, 3/30/20]
April: FDA Advised Against Using Hydroxychloroquine Outside Of A Hospital Or Clinical Trial. According to CNBC, “However, in a warning issued last month, the FDA advised consumers against taking drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 outside a hospital or formal clinical trial due to the risk of “serious heart rhythm problems.” [CNBC, 5/19/20]
FDA Said Use Of Hydroxychloroquine Was A Choice Between A Patient And Their Provider After Trump Said He Was Taking The Drug. According to CNBC, “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that taking hydroxychloroquine is “ultimately” a choice between patients and their health-care providers, appearing to soften its earlier advisory against taking the anti-malaria drug outside of a hospital. “The decision to take any drug is ultimately a decision between a patient and their doctor,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said in a statement to CNBC. “Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are already FDA-approved for treating malaria, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis.” [CNBC, 5/19/20]
Vladimir Zelenko Reached Out To Stephen Hahn To Obtain Hydroxychloroquine And Azithromycin For Clinical Trial. According to Vanity Fair, “Two days after that first phone call, in a series of text messages obtained by Vanity Fair, Zelenko returned to Hahn for help setting up a clinical trial of some 750 outpatients at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, New York. “The Catholic Health System (St. Francis Hospital) / Dr Zelenko COVID-19 trial is ready to go,” Zelenko wrote to Hahn, copying one of the hospital’s doctors involved in the trial. “We need ASAP 1. Hydroxychloroquine 200mg. 10000 pills 2. Azithromycin 500mg 5000 pills 3. Zinc sulfate 220 mg 5000 pills This treatment will be deployed in outpatient primary care.”” [Vanity Fair, 5/27/20]
Hahn Shared Contact Information For A FEMA Official With Hospital Investigators To Obtain Hydroxychloroquine From The Strategic National Stockpile For Use On Outpatients. According to Vanity Fair, “As Zelenko worked with St. Francis Hospital to hammer out the details of a clinical trial that would test his preferred cocktail of hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and one of two antibiotics— azithromycin or doxycycline—on COVID-19 outpatients, Hahn intervened. He shared the contact information for a FEMA official with hospital investigators, so St. Francis could obtain hydroxychloroquine directly from the Strategic National Stockpile. [Vanity Fair, 5/27/20]
Weeks Earlier FDA Had Restricted Chloroquine Drugs To Hospitalized Patients. According to Vanity Fair, “Federal agency chiefs normally focus on high-level problems and solutions, delegating any ground-level efforts through the chain of command. Assisting with a lone clinical trial hardly seemed worthy of the commissioner’s time. More troubling, perhaps, was the question of why Hahn—whose agency two weeks earlier had established restrictions on the use of certain chloroquine drugs in the national stockpile to hospitalized patients, as a way to avert potential risk to patients—appeared to be bending over backward to assist a doctor who, in line with President Trump, was advocating unfettered use of the drug.” [Vanity Fair, 5/27/20]
In An Informal Study Conducted At Various VA Hospitals There Were More Deaths Among Those Treated With Hydroxychloroquine Than Those Patients Given Standard Care. According to Associated Press, “A malaria drug widely touted by President Donald Trump for treating the new coronavirus showed no benefit in a large analysis of its use in U.S. veterans hospitals. There were more deaths among those given hydroxychloroquine versus standard care, researchers reported. The nationwide study was not a rigorous experiment. But with 368 patients, it’s the largest look so far of hydroxychloroquine with or without the antibiotic azithromycin for COVID-19, which has killed more than 171,000 people as of Tuesday. The study was posted on an online site for researchers and has been submitted to the New England Journal of Medicine, but has not been reviewed by other scientists. Grants from the National Institutes of Health and the University of Virginia paid for the work.” [Associated Press, 4/21/20]
Researchers Found That Of The 368 Veterans Hospitalized With Coronavirus, About 28% Who Were Given Chloroquine Plus Usual Care Died Compared To 11% Who Received Routine Care Alone. According to Associated Press, “Researchers analyzed medical records of 368 male veterans hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus infection at Veterans Health Administration medical centers who died or were discharged by April 11. About 28% who were given hydroxychloroquine plus usual care died, versus 11% of those getting routine care alone. About 22% of those getting the drug plus azithromycin died too, but the difference between that group and usual care was not considered large enough to rule out other factors that could have affected survival. Hydroxychloroquine made no difference in the need for a breathing machine, either. Researchers did not track side effects, but noted hints that hydroxychloroquine might have damaged other organs. The drug has long been known to have potentially serious side effects, including altering the heartbeat in a way that could lead to sudden death.” [Associated Press, 4/21/20]
VA Said IT Would Not Stop Using Hydroxychloroquine On Patients In A Response To Congress. According to the Associated Press, “Facing growing criticism, the Department of Veterans Affairs said Friday that it will not halt use of an unproven malaria drug on veterans with COVID-19 but that fewer of its patients are now taking it. In responses provided to Congress and obtained by The Associated Press, the VA said it never “encouraged or discouraged” its government-run hospitals to use hydroxychloroquine on patients even as President Donald Trump heavily promoted the drug for months without scientific evidence of its effectiveness.” [AP, 5/16/20]
NIH Medical Expert Panel Rejected The Drug Combination Hydroxychloroquine And Azithromycin Promoted By Trump To Treat Covid-19 Patients Citing A Lack Of Formal Evidence It Is A Successful Treatment Method. According to Bloomberg, “A panel of medical experts convened by the U.S. National Institutes of Health recommended against the use of a drug combination touted by President Donald Trump for Covid-19 patients. The NIH panel, made up of 50 doctors, pharmacy experts and government researchers and officials, specifically recommended against the use of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin. The malaria pill can cause heart issues, and the NIH panel warned of the potential for harm from the combination. Trump has repeatedly backed the use of the malaria pill or the combination of drugs on Twitter and at numerous briefings of the Coronavirus Task Force, though some medical experts in his administration have cautioned about the lack of evidence. In a press briefing on April 5th, he said: ‘What do you have to lose? Take it.’ ‘Although reports have appeared in the medical literature and the lay press claiming successful treatment of patients with Covid-19 with a variety of agents, definitive clinical trial data are needed to identify optimal treatments for this disease,’ the NIH panel said in its report, giving broad recommendations for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.” [Bloomberg, 4/21/20]
A Study Conducted At Columbia University Found The Use Of Hydroxycholoroquine Ineffective In Treatment Of Covid-19 According to The Associated Press, “A new study finds no evidence of benefit from a malaria drug widely promoted as a treatment for coronavirus infection. Hydroxychloroquine did not lower the risk of dying or needing a breathing tube in a comparison that involved nearly 1,400 patients treated at Columbia University in New York, researchers reported Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Although the study is observational rather than a rigorous experiment, it gives valuable information for a decision that hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 patients have already had to make without clear evidence about the drug’s risks and benefits, some journal editors and other doctors wrote in an editorial.” [Associated Press, 5/7/20]
Dr. Rick Bright The Director Of The Biomedical Advanced Research And Development Authority Was Dismissed And Removed As Assistant Secretary For Preparedness And Response After Pushing For A Thorough Vetting Of Hydroxychloroquine Prior To Investing Federal Dollars. According to The New York Times, “The doctor who led the federal agency involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine said on Wednesday that he was removed from his post after he pressed for rigorous vetting of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug embraced by President Trump as a coronavirus treatment, and that the administration has put ‘politics and cronyism ahead of science.’ Dr. Rick Bright was abruptly dismissed this week as the director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, and removed as the deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response. He was given a narrower job at the National Institutes of Health. In a scorching statement, Dr. Bright assailed the leadership at the health department, saying he was pressured to direct money toward hydroxychloroquine, one of several ‘potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections’ and repeatedly described by the president as a potential ‘game changer’ in the fight against the virus. ‘I believe this transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the Covid-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit,’ he said in his statement. ‘I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science — not politics or cronyism — has to lead the way.’” [New York Times, 4/22/20]
Dr. Bright Said He Was Pressured To Direct Money Toward Hydroxychloroquine. According to The New York Times, “In a scorching statement, Dr. Bright assailed the leadership at the health department, saying he was pressured to direct money toward hydroxychloroquine, one of several “potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections” and repeatedly described by the president as a potential “game changer” in the fight against the virus.” [New York Times, 4/22/20]
When Asked About The Ousting Of Dr. Bright, Trump Responded, “Maybe He Was And Maybe He Wasn’t; I Don’t Know Who He Is.” According to The New York Times, “The president no longer talks much about hydroxychloroquine. Asked at his daily briefing if Dr. Bright had been forced out because he challenged the president’s support for an unproven drug, Mr. Trump said, ‘Maybe he was and maybe he wasn’t; I don’t know who he is.” [New York Times, 4/22/20]
Despite Bright’s Pushback, Administration Officials Rejected The Restrictive Approach Pushing For Wider Circulation Of The Drug. According to Vanity Fair, “In the statement related to his firing, Rick Bright seemed to refer to that authorization when he wrote, ‘I rightly resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public. I insisted that these drugs be provided only to hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 while under the supervision of a physician.’ But top officials were not satisfied with the more restrictive approach and kept pushing for more widespread distribution of the drug. In an email that appears to have been addressed to Gaynor at some point after the emergency use authorization was issued, Brett Giroir argued strongly against limiting the drugs to hospitals. ‘NOPE. Needs to go to pharmacies as well,’ he wrote. ‘The EUA matters not. The drug is approved [and] therefore can be prescribed as per doctor’s orders That is a FINAL ANSWER.’” [Vanity Fair, 4/24/20]
Trump Said He Was Taking Hydroxychloroquine. According to the Wall Street Journal, “WASHINGTON—President Trump said he is taking hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug that he has cited as a possible defense against the novel coronavirus but that some scientists have cautioned needs further study and could be dangerous. “I happen to be taking it, hydroxychloroquine,” he told reporters at the White House on Monday. He said he had consulted with the White House doctor and suggested he is taking the drug as a preventive measure. Mr. Trump said he has been checked regularly for Covid-19, has tested negative and has no symptoms. He said he has been taking hydroxychloroquine for about a week and a half.” [WSJ, 5/18/20]
The White House Asserted That Trump Would Take The Controversial Drug, Hydroxychloroquine Again If Exposed To The Coronavirus. According to The Hill, “President Trump is feeling ‘perfect’ after taking hydroxychloroquine and would take the drug again if he felt he were exposed to the novel coronavirus, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Thursday. ‘He is feeling perfect,’ McEnany told reporters. ‘He is feeling absolutely great after taking this regimen.’ McEnany, who said she spoke with Trump about the subject just before the briefing, said Trump told her that he ‘would take it again if he thought he was exposed.’ Trump revealed last week that he was taking the drug along with zinc as a preventative measure, despite doubts about its effectiveness in treating the novel coronavirus and concerns about safety. Trump said he decided to take the drug after hearing positive reports from doctors and frontline healthcare workers, telling reporters last week it gave him an ‘additional level of safety.’ Hydroxychloroquine has not been proven effective to treat patients with COVID-19 and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned against the use of it outside hospital settings or clinical trials due to the risk of heart rhythm problems. The drug has been used to treat patients with malaria and lupus.” [Hill, 5/28/20]
The White House Continued To Promote Hydroxychloroquine And Claimed It Worked To Prevent The Contraction Of COVID-19
The White House Continued To Encourage The Use Of Hydroxycloroquine Despite Warnings. According to Yahoo! News, “The White House continued on Thursday to promote the use of hydroxychloroquine, the antimalarial drug that President Trump and some of his supporters have held out as a treatment for the coronavirus, against the advice of the Food and Drug Administration and in the face of studies that have shown it can be harmful in some cases. The drug, which is also used by lupus patients, has become a flash point in the politicization of the pandemic response, along with the wearing of face masks. Routinely touted by prominent conservative allies of the president, including primetime Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham, it has been denounced by members of the medical establishment as an unproven therapy that poses the risk of potentially fatal heart complications. The FDA recommends that COVID-19 patients, if they choose to use it, do so only in a hospital or under medical supervision in a clinical trial.” [Yahoo! News, 5/28/20]
France Banned The Use Of Hydroxychloroquine As A Treatment For Covid-19. According to Politico, “The French health ministry is banning the use of hydroxychloroquine as a cure to coronavirus, according to a decree published Wednesday morning. ‘Whether [in doctors offices] in the cities or in the hospital, this ... should not be prescribed for patients with COVID-19,’ the ministry said in a statement. On Tuesday, the country’s public health agency advised against using hydroxychloroquine outside of clinical trials. Shortly after that, the national medicines regulator suspended its use in clinical trials. The moves follow the Lancet’s publication on Friday of a large observational study casting doubt on the benefit of hydroxychloroquine and another malaria drug, chloroquine, for Covid-19 patients. It also found an increased risk of heart problems and death. […] For its part, the World Health Organization announced Monday that it’s temporarily halting the hydroxychloroquine part of its global Solidarity trial amid a safety review.” [Politico, 5/27/20]
FDA Revoked Emergency Use Authorizations For Hydroxychloroquine. According to Politico, “The Food and Drug Administration on Monday withdrew emergency use authorizations for two coronavirus treatments that President Donald Trump promoted despite concerns about their safety and effectiveness. The agency revoked the authorizations for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine after a request from Gary Disbrow, acting director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.” [Politico, 6/15/20]
WHO Ended Its Hydroxychloroquine Trial Because Of Lack Of Evidence Of Effectiveness. According to Politico, “The World Health Organization is stopping its trial of the hyped drug hydroxychloroquine, it announced Wednesday. The decision was made on the basis of data from a large, randomized U.K. trial of the drug as well as the data available to the WHO through its own Solidarity trial, said Ana Maria Henao Restrepo, head of the WHO’s research and development group. The decision to remove the drug from its Solidarity trial came following several events, Restrepo noted. A review of the evidence suggested there was “no apparent beneficial effect of hydroxychloroquine” to treat Covid-19. In addition, the results coming out of the U.K. last Friday indicated that there was no apparent effect on mortality or ventilation during a hospital stay. Finally, there was the Solidarity trial’s own evidence.” [Politico, 6/17/20]
July 2020: Trump Continued To Promote Hydroxychloroquine At A Press Conference. According to The New York Times, “President Trump returned to defending a discredited drug at a White House briefing Tuesday evening in which he also made claims about the trajectory of the virus that clash with his own administration’s assessments and bemoaned his low approval ratings. The president defended sharing a version of a video promoting the use of the drug hydroxychloroquine that was deleted Monday night by Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, which all said that the video had violated their policies on sharing misinformation about the virus. He claimed that ‘you can look at large portions of our country — it’s corona-free,’ even as federal officials distributed a new report finding that 21 states had outbreaks so severe that they were in the ‘red zone.’ Twenty-eight states were in the ‘yellow zone,’ and only one state, Vermont, was in the ‘green zone.’” [New York Times, 07/28/20]
July 2020: Trump Tweeted A Video From A Right-Wing Backed Group Promoting Hydroxychloroquine As A Cure For COVID-19 Which Was Taken Down By Twitter, Facebook, And YouTube For Violating Anti-COVID-19 Misinformation Policies. According to the BBC, “In the video, members of the group America's Frontline Doctors promote it both as a preventative measure and as a cure for Covid-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) say ‘there is currently no proof’ that hydroxychloroquine is effective as a treatment or prevents coronavirus. The video was broadcast online by right-wing online platform Breitbart, viewed over 17 million times on Facebook. It was also shared on Twitter by Donald Trump and many of his supporters. The president's son, Donald Jnr, was suspended from tweeting for 12 hours by Twitter after he posted it on his account. The video, a 45-minute livestream of the first day of a ‘White Coat’ summit by the group, was posted to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube by Breitbart and quickly went viral. ‘The virus has a cure, it's called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and Zithromax,’ says one of the doctors in the video. ‘You don't need masks. There is a cure. I know they don't want to open schools. No, you don't need people to be locked down. There is prevention and there is a cure.’ The Facebook video, as well as racking up millions of views, was shared nearly 600,000 times before it was taken down. The hashtag #hydroxychloroquine was tweeted more than 153,000 times, becoming one of Twitter's top trends in the US overnight. Multiple versions of the video continue to be widely shared on social media. According to data from the Facebook-owned social media analytics tool CrowdTangle, public posts in the last 24 hours containing the word hydroxychloroquine have had 6.6 million engagements (likes, shares, views, comments and reactions) on Facebook and Instagram despite the removal of several versions of the video. In a statement to BBC News, Twitter said: ‘Tweets with the video are in violation of our Covid-19 misinformation policy. We are taking action in line with our policy here.’ ‘We've removed this video for sharing false information about cures and treatments for Covid-19,’ Facebook told the BBC, confirming it was also removing other versions of the video. YouTube told the BBC: ‘We have removed the video for violating our Covid-19 misinformation policies.’ BBC News also approached Breitbart, the White House and America's Frontline Doctors for comment. […] America's Frontline Doctors is a collection of physicians critical of the scientific consensus around the pandemic. Their event was backed by the Tea Party Patriots, a conservative organisation seeking to re-elect President Trump.” [BBC, 07/28/20]
August 2020: Trump Pressed The FDA To Approve A Dietary Supplement Marketed As A “Cure” For The Coronavirus, Which Was Backed By Mike Lindell, A Major Trump Backer. According to Axios, “To the alarm of some government health officials, President Trump has expressed enthusiasm for the Food and Drug Administration to permit an extract from the oleander plant to be marketed as a dietary supplement or, alternatively, approved as a drug to cure COVID-19, despite lack of proof that it works. Driving the news: The experimental botanical extract, oleandrin, was promoted to Trump during an Oval Office meeting in July. It's embraced by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell, a big Trump backer, who recently took a financial stake in the company that develops the product. Lindell told Axios that in the meeting, Trump ‘basically said: …”The FDA should be approving it.”’ The White House did not respond to requests for comment.” [Axios, 08/16/20]
Mike Lindell Held An Ownership Stake In Phoenix Biotechnology, The Company Attempting To Market Oleandrin. According to CNN, “The US Food and Drug Administration has rejected a submission from Phoenix Biotechnology Inc. to market oleandrin as a dietary supplement ingredient, citing “significant concerns” about the safety evidence the company presented. Last month, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who recently joined the board of Phoenix Biotechnology and has a financial stake in the company, said he had participated in a July meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump regarding the use of oleandrin as a potential therapeutic for the coronavirus.” [CNN, 09/04/20]
August 2020: After Trump Attacked The FDA For Moving Too Slowly To Back Plasma Treatments, The FDA Issued An Emergency Use Authorization For It. According to Politico, “The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization for blood plasma as a coronavirus treatment, the agency and President Donald Trump announced Sunday — one day after Trump attacked the drug regulator for moving too slowly to back the treatment. The agency held off on the decision last week over concerns from government scientists that evidence for the treatment's effectiveness is thin, prompting Trump to accuse the FDA of slow-walking the therapy to harm his reelection chances without offering any evidence to support his claim. It is not clear whether the FDA has received additional clinical trial data in the last week that would support the therapy's use. Trump in a brief Sunday evening news conference appeared to oversell the FDA's assessment, claiming the agency found plasma ‘safe and very effective.’” [Politico, 08/23/20]
August 2020: FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn Was Forced To Walk Back Comments About The Effectiveness Of Blood Plasma Treatments He Had Touted At A Press Conference With Trump. According to Bloomberg, “The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration walked back his claim that an experimental therapy had provided a dramatic benefit to Covid-19 patients, a rare reversal for an agency that has prided itself on rock-solid science and public trust. On Sunday night at a press conference with President Donald Trump, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said that blood plasma from Covid-19 survivors given to new patients could save huge numbers of lives. ‘What that means is -- and if the data continue to pan out -- 100 people who are sick with Covid-19, 35 would have been saved because of the administration of plasma,’ Hahn said. Hahn’s remarks followed similar comments by Trump, who said that the therapy is ‘proven to reduce mortality by 35%,’ and by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. On Monday night, Hahn reversed himself. ‘I have been criticized for remarks I made Sunday night about the benefits of convalescent plasma. The criticism is entirely justified,’ Hahn said in a tweet. He went on CBS on Tuesday morning to continue walking back the claim, telling the network that ‘I could have done a better job of explaining that at the press conference.’ Hahn had spent much of Monday taking heat from health experts, including two former FDA commissioners, for his remarks. ‘That was not the way that I would have worded it,’ said one of the doctors who led the blood plasma study, Arturo Casadevall, chair of the department of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. ‘I hope they will issue a clarification,’ he said earlier Monday.” [Bloomberg, 08/24/20]
There Was No Evidence In Any Of The Mayo Clinic’s Official Material Pointing To The 35 Percent Number Touted By The Administration. According to The New York Times, “Mr. Trump called it a ‘tremendous’ number. His health and human services secretary, Alex M. Azar II, a former pharmaceutical executive, said, “I don’t want you to gloss over this number.” And Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said 35 out of 100 Covid-19 patients ‘would have been saved because of the administration of plasma.’ But scientists were taken aback by the way the administration framed this data, which appeared to have been calculated based on a small subgroup of hospitalized Covid-19 patients in a Mayo Clinic study: those who were under 80 years old, not on ventilators and received plasma known to contain high levels of virus-fighting antibodies within three days of diagnosis. What’s more, many experts — including a scientist who worked on the Mayo Clinic study — were bewildered about where the statistic came from. The number was not mentioned in the official authorization letter issued by the agency, nor was it in a 17-page memo written by F.D.A. scientists. It was not in an analysis conducted by the Mayo Clinic that has been frequently cited by the administration. [New York Times, 08/24/20]
Trump Suggested Injecting Disinfectant Could Be An Effective Treatment For Those Infected. According to NBC News, “President Donald Trump suggested the possibility of an ‘injection’ of disinfectant into a person infected with the coronavirus as a deterrent to the virus during his daily briefing Thursday. […] He added: ‘I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.’ He didn’t specify the kind of disinfectant.” [NBC News, 4/23/20]
Trump Recommended Exposing Coronavirus Patients To “Ultraviolet Or Just Very Powerful Light” As A Treatment For Coronavirus According to NBC News, “Trump made the remark after Bill Bryan, who leads the Department of Homeland Security’s science and technology division, gave a presentation on research his team has conducted that shows that the virus doesn’t live as long in warmer and more humid temperatures. Bryan said, ‘The virus dies quickest in sunlight,’ leaving Trump to wonder whether you could bring the light ‘inside the body.’ ‘So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just a very powerful light — and I think you said that hasn’t been checked because of the testing,’ Trump said, speaking to Bryan during the briefing. ‘And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that, too.’” [NBC News, 4/23/20]
Contradicting The White House Press Secretary’s Defense Of His Comments, Trump Attempted To Walk-Back His Untested Coronavirus Treatment Recommendations. According to Politico, “President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Americans should inject themselves with household disinfectants as a coronavirus remedy provoked an apparently universal rebuke Friday — including from congressional lawmakers, the medical community and the makers of the cleaning products themselves. […] But quizzed on his proposal Friday, Trump falsely claimed he was in fact ‘asking a question sarcastically to reporters’ about the efficacy of disinfectants, ‘just to see what would happen.’ That explanation contradicted a statement released hours earlier by White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who argued the widespread criticism Trump received for his medical counsel was unwarranted and accused the news media of distorting the president’s message. ‘President Trump has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment, a point that he emphasized again during yesterday’s briefing,’ McEnany said. ‘Leave it to the media to irresponsibly take President Trump out of context and run with negative headlines.’” [Politico, 4/24/20]
Trump’s Repeatedly Changed His Version Of Events Claiming To Have Been Both Sarcastically Questioning Reports And Seriously Inquiring About Fictional Treatment Options With Health And Science Officials. According to Politico, “Although the president clearly directed those queries at the briefing to Bill Bryan, the acting undersecretary of Science and Technology at the Department of Homeland Security, he insisted at a White House event Friday that they were meant for reporters. ‘I was asking a sarcastic — and a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. ... That was done in the form of a sarcastic question to the reporters,’ Trump said. Still, the president seemingly struggled to settle on a preferred version of events, saying he actually meant for Bryan to investigate whether using disinfectant on hands would be beneficial and that ‘Bill has gone back to check that in the laboratory.’” [Politico, 4/24/20]
Trump Messaging On GM’s Ventilator Production Varied From Praise To Condemnation. According to CBS News, “It was only a few days earlier that Trump had been holding up GM and Ford as examples of companies voluntarily responding to the outbreak without the need for him to invoke the act. Then on Friday, he slammed GM on Twitter and during his daily briefing for foot-dragging. On Sunday, he was back to praising the company during another briefing: "General Motors is doing a fantastic job. I don't think we have to worry about them anymore." [CBS News, 3/30/20]
Trump Falsely Made Claims That Auto Manufacturers GM, Ford, And Tesla Had Begun Manufacturing Ventilators With His Permission. According to Associated Press, “President Donald Trump is falsely asserting how quickly automakers including GM, Ford and Tesla can manufacture ventilators to help fill an acute U.S. shortage of the medical equipment for coronavirus patients. Ford and GM have yet to start production, and it would take them months, if not longer, to begin production, if it’s even possible. A look at the claim: TRUMP: ‘Ford, General Motors and Tesla are being given the go ahead to make ventilators and other metal products, FAST! @fema Go for it auto execs, lets see how good you are?’ — tweet Sunday. TRUMP, on addressing a shortage of ventilators: ‘General Motors, Ford, so many companies — I had three calls yesterday directly, without having to institute like: ‘You will do this’ — these companies are making them right now.’ — briefing Saturday. THE FACTS: No automaker is anywhere close to making medical gear such as ventilators and remain months away — if not longer. Nor do the car companies need the president’s permission to move forward. Neither GM or Ford is building ventilators at present, while Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Friday that his company was ‘working on ventilators’ but he didn’t specify how long it might take. His tweets also questioned the need and said it couldn’t be done immediately. Unless automakers can move with unprecedented speed, redirecting plants to make completely different products will take a long time — possibly too long to help with medical gear shortages.” [Associated Press, 3/22/20]
March 22, 2020: General Motors Partnered With Ventec Life Systems To Support Ventilator Production But Did Not Commit To Manufacturing Ventilators Independently. According to Associated Press, “GM announced on Friday that it is working with ventilator maker Ventec Life Systems to ramp up production. The automaker said it would help with logistics, purchasing and manufacturing, but stopped short of saying it would make ventilators in its own factories, which have been idled for two weeks after workers who’d been fearful of the contagion put pressure on the company. Any manufacturing at GM would come much later. GM does have a lot of 3D printers and could make parts and other things to help, but it does not need permission from Trump. In fact, GM manufacturing engineers were at Ventec late last week working on this, well before Trump’s tweet.” [Associated Press, 3/22/20]
Ford Shared They Held Discussion With The Trump Administration To Review The Feasibility Of Ventilator Manufacturing, But Had Not Begun Any Production. According to Associated Press, “Ford, which also suspended factory production along with other automakers with operations in North America, confirmed that it too was in discussions with the Trump administration about helping, but had not started. ‘We’re looking at feasibility,’ Ford spokesman T.R. Reid said. ‘It may be possible, but it’s not you go from Rangers (small pickups) one day to ventilators the next. We’re figuring out what is possible now.’” [Associated Press, 3/22/20]
March 26, 2020: During An Interview With Sean Hannity, Trump Downplayed The Urgent Need For Ventilators; “I Don’t Believe You Need 40,000 Or 30,000 Ventilators.” According to the New York Times, “But in an interview Thursday night with Sean Hannity, the president played down the need for ventilators.‘I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators,’ he said, a reference to New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo has appealed for federal help in obtaining them. ‘You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden, they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’’ […] The shortage of ventilators has emerged as one of the major criticisms of the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus. The need to quickly equip hospitals across the country with tens of thousands more of the devices to treat those most seriously ill with the virus was not anticipated despite the Trump administration’s own projection in a simulation last year that millions of people could be hospitalized. And even now, the effort to produce them has been confused and disorganized.” [New York Times, 3/26/20]
March 27, 2020: Trump Said The Administration Would Procure 100,000 Ventilators In The Next 100 Days. According to CNN, “Trump said the administration would procure 100,000 ventilators in the next 100 days, amid fears that parts of the US are facing a looming shortage of the life-saving devices.” [CNN, 3/27/30]
March 31, 2020: The Trump Administration Told Hospitals That They Can Split Ventilators Between Two Patients, Underscoring Concerns That Hospitals May Soon Be Faced With Ethical Decisions About How To Prioritize Which Patients Receive Life Saving Equipment. According to Politico, “The Trump administration is telling hospitals they can split ventilators between two patients and is escalating calls to scrap elective surgeries, as federal officials try to limit care rationing in facilities lacking the critical breathing machines. New federal guidelines on so-called ventilator splitting — an idea that's been used extremely rarely in emergency situations — emphasizes it should ‘only be considered as an absolute last resort’ for hospitals swamped by coronavirus patients. But it underscores concerns that hospitals could soon be faced with challenging ethical decisions about how to prioritize which patients receive life-saving equipment.” [Politico, 3/31/20]
In Their Open Letter, Surgeon General Jerome Adams And Adm. Brett Giroir Acknowledged They Don’t Know How Effective Or Safe The Strategy Is Because It Had Not Been Tested For Humans. According to Politico, “An open letter to health care workers from Surgeon General Jerome Adams and Adm. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health, includes technical guidance on how ventilator splitting can be performed strictly for two patients who are both either infected or free of the virus. They acknowledge they don't know how effective or safe the strategy is because it hasn't been tested in humans. Some overrun Italian hospitals shared ventilators for coronavirus patients, but there's been little experience with the practice in the U.S. so far. At least one hospital in hard-hit New York has reportedly started doing so recently, and Las Vegas hospitals briefly deployed the strategy in 2017 following the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Some groups representing critical care providers last week warned against ventilator splitting, arguing ‘it cannot be done safely with current equipment.’” [Politico, 3/31/20]
For Weeks Members Of The Trump Administration Advised Against The General Public Wearing Masks, Going As Far To Argue That Members Of The General Public Were More Likely To Catch The Virus If They Used Them. According to Politico, “In recent weeks, facing public uncertainty about coronavirus and a severe domestic shortage of medical-grade face masks, top Trump administration officials offered adamant warnings against widespread use of masks, going so far as to argue that members of the general public were more likely to catch the virus if they used them. ‘You can increase your risk of getting it by wearing a mask if you are not a health care provider,’ Surgeon General Jerome Adams said during an appearance on ‘Fox & Friends’ earlier this month.‘If it's not fitted right you’re going to fumble with it,’ warned Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar late last month, when asked about N95 respirator masks. ‘Right now, in the United States, people should not be walking around with masks,’ said Dr. Anthony Fauci, an immunologist and a public face of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, on CBS’ ‘60 Minutes’ earlier this month. He, like the others, suggested that masks could put users at risk by causing them to touch their face more often.” [Politico, 3/30/20]
The Increasing Calls For More Use Of Masks Raised Questions Of Whether Authorities’ Recommendations Were Based On Genuine Concerns Or Instead Motivated By A Desire To Prevent A Run On Limited Supplies Of Masks. According to Politico, “The increasing calls for more use of masks raise the question of whether authorities’ recommendations were based on genuine concerns about spreading Covid-19 or instead motivated by a desire to prevent a run on limited supplies of masks: ‘Seriously people — STOP BUYING MASKS!’ tweeted Adams in late February. ‘They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!’ [Politico, 3/30/20]
April 3, 2020: Trump Announced And CDC Recommended That Americans Wear Cloth Masks Outside Of The Home. According to Politico, “President Donald Trump on Friday said his administration is recommending that Americans wear face coverings to curb the spread of the coronavirus but added he wouldn't follow the recommendation. The guidance from the Centers for Disease Control encourages use of cloth masks when outside the home. Health experts say the practice, which is common in parts of Asia, would reduce the risk of exposed individuals not exhibiting symptoms spreading the disease.” [Politico, 4/3/20]
April 2020: The White House Decided Against Sending Masks To Every American Household. According to NBC News, “The White House scrapped an effort to send hundreds of millions of cloth masks to every U.S. household in April, choosing instead to distribute the masks to nonprofit organizations and state and federal agencies, according to an internal email from a senior Trump administration official obtained by NBC News. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told NBC News that 600 million masks have been distributed around the country to nonprofits and state and federal agencies through the means the Trump administration ultimately chose. The mask distribution program was called Project America Strong. Public health experts said sending masks directly to Americans' homes in the early days of the global pandemic would have sent a stronger message encouraging Americans to wear masks. Dr. Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said mailing masks to everyone's homes would have meant ‘we are saying, “This is so important that we are going to put them in the mail and get them to you.”’” [NBC News, 09/17/20]
Criticized For Coronavirus Response, Trump Pointed A ‘Very Detrimental’ Obama Administration Decision – Health Experts And Government Veterans Were Not Clear As To What He Was Referring To. According to the New York Times, “President Trump sought on Wednesday to deflect criticism of his administration’s response to the coronavirus onto his predecessor, complaining that a federal agency decision under President Barack Obama had made it harder to quickly enact widespread testing for the virus […] It was not entirely clear what he was referring to. Health experts and veterans of the government during Mr. Obama’s presidency said they were unaware of any policy or rule changes during the last administration that would have affected the way the Food and Drug Administration approved tests during the current crisis. Moreover, if there were, Mr. Trump did not explain why his administration did not change the rules during its first three years in office.” [New York Times, 3/4/20]
In Response To Questions On The Lack Of Wide Spread Testing Trump Faulted Obama And Said, “I Don't Take Responsibility At All,” According to Politico, “President Donald Trump on Friday deflected blame for his administration’s lagging ability to test Americans for the coronavirus outbreak, insisting instead — without offering evidence — that fault lies with his predecessor, Barack Obama. “I don't take responsibility at all,” Trump said defiantly, pointing to an unspecified “set of circumstances” and “rules, regulations and specifications from a different time.’ The remarks from the president came in response to questions at a Friday press conference about the lack of widespread access to testing, an aspect of his administration's coronavirus response that has been the subject of widespread, steady criticism. Administration officials told lawmakers yesterday that the U.S. tested about 11,000 people during the first seven weeks of the outbreak — roughly as many as South Korea is testing each day.” [Politico, 3/13/20]
Trump Attempted To Shift Blame For The Entire The Global Coronavirus Crisis On The World Health Organization.According to The New York Times, “For weeks, President Trump has faced relentless criticism for having overseen a slow and ineffective response to the coronavirus pandemic, failing to quickly embrace public health measures that could have prevented the disease from spreading. Recent polls show that more Americans disapprove of Mr. Trump’s handling of the virus than approve. So on Tuesday, the president tried to shift the blame elsewhere, ordering his administration to halt funding for the World Health Organization and claiming the organization made a series of devastating mistakes as it sought to battle the virus. He said his administration would conduct a review into whether the W.H.O. was responsible for ‘severely mismanaging and covering up’ the spread. ‘So much death has been caused by their mistakes,’ the president told reporters during a White House briefing. In effect, Mr. Trump was accusing the world’s leading health organization of making all of the mistakes that he has made since the virus first emerged in China and then spread rapidly. As of Tuesday, there had been about two million cases of the virus worldwide, and nearly 125,000 deaths. In the United States, there have been over 600,000 cases and 25,000 deaths from the virus.” [New York Times, 4/14/20]
March 16, 2020: When Asked To Rate His Response To The Coronavirus Crisis On A Scale Of 1 To 10, Trump Gave Himself A 10. According to The Huffington Post, “President Donald Trump said Monday that on a scale of 1 to 10, he would rate his performance in response to the coronavirus crisis at the top. During the White House’s daily coronavirus news briefing, Yahoo News reporter Hunter Walker brought up the president’s previous comments about not being responsible for the country’s lack of testing. ‘Very simple question: Does the buck stop with you?’ Walker asked. ‘And on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your response to this crisis?’ ‘I’d rate it a 10,’ Trump answered. ‘I think we’ve done a great job.’ The president also said the buck ‘normally’ stops with him, ‘but this has never been done in this country.’” [Huffington Post, 3/16/20]
Despite The Grim Forecast, Trump Insisted He Still Deserved An ‘A+’ For His Effort To Combat Coronavirus. According to the New York Times, “But asked about whether the impeachment effort had distracted him in the early days of the pandemic, Mr. Trump reverted to form, lashing out at Democrats and once again calling it ‘a phony impeachment’ and ‘a hoax.’ He acknowledged that he might have been distracted, but insisted that he still deserved an ‘A+’ for his effort to combat the virus […] Mr. Trump, who spent weeks playing down the threat of the virus — and who has retreated from saying that social distancing could be scaled back in mid-April — congratulated himself at the briefing for projections showing that public health measures may significantly limit the national death toll. ‘What would have happened if we did nothing? Because there was a group that said, ‘Let’s just ride it out,’’ the president said, without saying what group he was referring to. He noted the estimate that as many as 2.2 million people ‘would have died if we did nothing, if we just carried on with our life.’” [New York Times, 3/31/20]
Trump Claimed That “We Have Met The Moment And We Have Prevailed.” On The Same Day That Coronavirus Death Toll Topped 80,000. According to Politico, “On the day the U.S. death toll from coronavirus topped 80,000, U.S. President Donald Trump stood in the White House Rose Garden for a “mission accomplished” moment. Behind Trump were a row of American flags and a pair of giant signs reading, in all capital letters: “America leads the world in testing,” referring to the total number of U.S. tests conducted in recent months rather than per-capita testing, in which America does not lead the world. In front of Trump sat his staff and reporters, physically distanced and all wearing face masks under an edict the president said he issued Monday afternoon to control the spread of coronavirus within the West Wing. At an event carefully crafted to reassure businesses and governors they could safely restart a crippled economy, Trump declared America had accomplished its mission on coronavirus testing. “In every generation, through every challenge and hardship and danger, America has risen to the task,” Trump said. “We have met the moment and we have prevailed.” [Politico, 5/11/20]
Trump Said He Considered The Number Of Coronavirus Cases In The U.S. A “Badge Of Honor” Because Of Testing. According to Politico, “President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he viewed the number of U.S. cases of coronavirus — the highest in the world — as a “badge of honor” because the still-increasing figure is a reflection of the country’s testing capacity. Trump offered his take on the grim numbers unprompted, when asked by a reporter at the White House whether the administration was weighing restrictions on travel from Brazil. The reporter noted that according to Johns Hopkins University, Brazil, now ranks behind only the U.S. and Russia in total number of coronavirus infections per country. […] “When we have a lot of cases, I don’t look at that as a bad thing,” the president said. “I look at that in a certain respect as being a good thing, because it means our testing is much better. So, if we were testing a million people instead of 14 million people, it would have far few cases, right?” “So, I view it as a badge of honor. Really, it’s a badge of honor,” he concluded. “It’s a great tribute to the testing and all of the work that a lot of professionals have done.” [Politico, 5/19/20]
Kushner Said “The Federal Government Rose To The Challenge And This Is A Great Success Story” As The U.S. Recorded 1 Million Confirmed Cases. According to CNN, “President Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, praised the administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic as a "great success story" on Wednesday -- less than a day after the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States topped 1 million. Kushner painted a rosy picture for "Fox and Friends" Wednesday morning, saying that "the federal government rose to the challenge and this is a great success story and I think that that's really what needs to be told.” [CNN, 4/29/20]
As Of The End Of April Trump Failed To Meet Or Address Americans Who Have Lost Loved Ones Due To Coronavirus. According to The New York Times, “One morning this week, President Trump called food sector executives. That afternoon, he met with corporate leaders at the White House. The day before, he paraded small-business owners in the East Room, and the day before that, he showcased executives from retail giants like Walgreens and Walmart in the Rose Garden. As he presides over the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic collapse, Mr. Trump has hosted or called many people affected by the devastation, including health company executives, sports commissioners, governors, cruise boat company heads, religious leaders, telecommunications executives and foreign heads of state. One category that has yet to make his list: Americans who have lost someone to the pandemic. As the death toll from the coronavirus over eight weeks surpasses the total American military casualties in eight years of major combat in Vietnam, Mr. Trump has led no national mourning. In his daily news conferences, he makes only perfunctory references to those who have died as he stiffly reads opening remarks, exhibiting more emotion when grieving his lost economic record than his lost constituents.” [New York Times, 4/30/20]
Trump Mentioned Stanley Chera, That He Had Lost Other Friends, And Said He Had Spoken With Vicitms’ Families. According to the New York Times, “Indeed, Mr. Trump appears reluctant to talk about the more than 63,000 people who have died in the United States from the coronavirus. He mentioned a few times that a friend of his, Stanley Chera, a major New York real estate developer, had been infected and later died, but did not dwell on it for long. In response to a question this week, the president said that he had also lost a few other friends and had spoken with families of other victims, but he quickly shifted the conversation to distance learning for children.” [New York Times, 4/30/20]
Early News Accounts Often Ascribed Project Airbridge To Kushner. According to the Washington Post, “Early news accounts of Project Airbridge often ascribed the original idea to Kushner — “We formed an unprecedented public-private partnership,” he told numerous media outlets at the end of March — and Ivanka Trump has posted praise on social media for her husband’s role in the program.” [Washington Post, 5/8/20]
Airbridge Framework Was From MIT Professor Valerie Karplus. According to the Washington Post, “But the framework for Project Airbridge originated hundreds of miles from the White House, within the Boston home of Valerie Karplus, an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who specializes in science and technology policy and is a member of the Covid-19 Policy Alliance. The group analyzes data and offers policy recommendations related to the pandemic.” [Washington Post, 5/8/20]
Pence Claimed Airbridge Had Distributed 1.4 million N95 Masks When Airbridge Had Distributed Less Than 800,000. According to the Washington Post, “In recent days, Pence has highlighted Project Airbridge’s deliveries to his home state of Indiana, as well as to Minnesota and Wisconsin — likely to be key states in the November election — in promotional graphics posted to his Instagram and Twitter pages. Pence claimed that more than 1.4 million N95 masks were delivered in the three states through Airbridge. But Airbridge has brought in fewer than 800,000 masks for the entire country, according to FEMA records. FEMA released total numbers of each type of supply delivered but declined to provide details on where they were distributed.” [Washington Post, 5/8/20]
FEMA Regional Admin Claimed 20% Of Airbridge Goods Were Headed To Hotspots, Days Later FEMA Announced 50% Would Go To Hotspots. According to the Washington Post, “On April 3, several days into the new initiative, a FEMA regional administrator hosted a conference call with the Florida congressional delegation, including Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.). Deutch said he was confused during the call as the FEMA official suggested that just 20 percent of Airbridge-delivered goods would go to pandemic hot spots, while 80 percent would go elsewhere in the companies’ supply chains. Several days later, FEMA announced that 50 percent of the supplies were going to hot spots. The mixed messages befuddled Deutch, who said he has sent FEMA Administrator Peter T. Gaynor requests for flight manifests, cost breakdowns and a list of recipients of goods.” [Washington Post, 5/8/20]
Trump Called The Coronavirus “Kung Flu.” According to the Hill, “President Trump referred to the coronavirus as the “kung flu” on Tuesday during his speech addressing young people in Phoenix, despite past criticisms that the phrase is racist. The president used the term “kung flu” when speaking to students from the conservative group Turning Point Action, days after saying it at his campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., on Saturday.” [Hill, 6/23/20]
HHS Secretary Azar Dismissed Concerns About The Safety Of Meat Packing Plants And Claimed Infections Spread Due To Workers’ Living Conditions And Social Lives. According to Politico, “The country’s top health official downplayed concerns over the public health conditions inside meatpacking plants, suggesting on a call with lawmakers that workers were more likely to catch coronavirus based on their social interactions and group living situations, three participants said. HHS Secretary Alex Azar told a bipartisan group that he believed infected employees were bringing the virus into processing plants where a rash of cases have killed at least 20 workers and forced nearly two-dozen plants to close, according to three people on the April 28 call. Those infections, he said, were linked more to the ‘home and social’ aspects of workers’ lives rather than the conditions inside the facilities, alarming some on the call who interpreted his remarks as faulting workers for the outbreaks, the people said.” [Politico, 5/7/20]
Azar Recommended Dispatching Law Enforcement To The Communities Where Workers Lived To Enforce Social Distancing. According to Politico, “Azar emphasized the need to keep the plants open, according to the three people on the call. He also theorized that workers were largely not becoming infected at the meatpacking plants, and were instead contracting the coronavirus from their communities. Azar noted in particular that many meatpacking workers live in congregate housing, allowing that more testing at facilities would help but that the bigger issue was employees’ home environments. One possible solution was to send more law enforcement to those communities to better enforce social distancing rules, he added, according to two of the lawmakers on the call.” [Politico, 5/7/20]
Azar Blamed Ethnographic Health Disparities For The U.S.’ Highest In The World Coronavirus Death Toll. According to Vox, “But when Tapper pressed him further, and emphasized that the overall number of deaths in the US is the highest in the world, Azar said this could be explained by ethnic demographics. “Unfortunately the American population is a very diverse, and, it is, it is a population with significant unhealthy comorbidities that do make many individuals in our communities, in particular African American, minority communities, particularly at risk here, because of significant underlying disease, health disparities, and disease comorbidities,” Azar said. “That is an unfortunate legacy in our health care system that we certainly do need to address,” Azar added. Azar is right that public health inequities are contributing to disproportionate casualties among communities of color. But pointing to that as the primary reason the US has surpassed every other country in the world in terms of coronavirus-related deaths is a troubling dodge: it seems to imply that racial minorities are to blame for their deaths rather than the federal government.” [Vox, 5/17/20]
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams Said That African Americans And Latinos Need To “Step Up” And Stop Drinking And Smoking; Experts Said It Undermined The Government’s Credibility.
According to Politico, “It didn’t help, health professionals said, when U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams — one of two people of color communicating at the administration level about the coronavirus — remarked recently that African Americans and Latinos need to “step up” and stop drinking and smoking. Health experts and pastors said it was widely seen as victim-blaming and likely undermined the government’s credibility. (Adams has since been publicly sidelined.) ‘Messaging is paramount in moments like this,’ said Dr. Lauren Powell, former head of health equity for Virginia’s health department. Powell added that the dearth of female and minority messengers could have negative consequences. ‘This is a systemic problem across health care and many other industries where we don't see enough people of color, women of color in particular in positions of power and authority,’ said Powell, the executive director of Time's Up Healthcare, a nonprofit foundation. ‘And that could certainly impact the way these vital public health messages fall on the ears of those of us in minority communities.’” [Politico, 4/21/20]